Artemisia Gentileschi

Is Artemisia Gentileschi having her a #MeToo moment in this painting? One of the trends of Baroque’s art is Naturalism. The Naturalist shows up in Gentileschi’s paintings showing a deep expressing of movement demonstrating her specialty of besting men possibly as revenge for being raped by a male patron—the event (bravo to you, Artemisia!) even went to trial. Light effects are the key in this painting where the light is illuminating the figures against a deep dark shadowing using a technique called tenebroso. Colors also play a descriptive and evocative role in the painting—we know Holofernes is a powerful important figure wearing such a royal color robe and the maid is clearly identified not only with her position in the portrait but the bland color headdress. Baroque’s painters and sculptors were superb in the handling of light and shadow to put emphasis on the action of their artwork.