LONDON.- This beautifully illustrated book examines the entire career of Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-c.1654), and includes newly discovered paintings by the artist.

'Sheila Barker paints a rich portrait of Artemisia’s early career in Rome and Florence during the time that Artemisia lived and worked there, providing details of the artist’s life as well as the personalities she encountered. All in all, a major contribution to our understanding of Artemisia’s life and work.' – Judith Mann, Curator, European Art to 1800, Saint Louis Art Museum

'Sheila Barker’s book provides a compelling and lively introduction to this endlessly fascinating, complex, and essential painter whose ambitious work challenged the gender-restricting conventions of her day by asserting her claim to be the equal of her male colleagues.' – Keith Christiansen, Curator Emeritus, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

'Over the last 30 years Artemisia Gentileschi has received a good deal of attention, to which Sheila Barker’s beautifully illustrated monograph is an outstanding contribution, brimming over with fresh insights and revelatory comparisons on nearly every page . . . essential reading for everyone who has studied this artist, as well as anyone who wishes to begin to know her.' – John T. Spike, Author of Young Michelangelo, The Path to the Sistine and Caravaggio: Catalogue of Paintings

Examined through the lens of cutting-edge scholarship, Artemisia Gentileschi clears a pathway for non-specialist audiences to appreciate the artist's pictorial intelligence, as well as her achievement of a remarkably lucrative and high-profile career. Bringing to light recent archival discoveries and newly attributed paintings, this book highlights Gentileschi's enterprising and original engagement with emerging feminist notions of the value and dignity of womanhood.

Beautifully illustrated throughout, Artemisia Gentileschi brings to life the extraordinary story of this Italian artist, placing her within a socio-historical context. Sheila Barker weaves the story with in-depth discussions of key artworks, examining them in terms of their iconographies and technical characteristics in order to portray the developments in Gentileschi’s approach to her craft and the gradual evolution of her expressive goals and techniques.

Sheila Barker is an art historian and writer. She is the founding director of the Jane Fortune Research Program on Women Artists at the Medici Archive Project. Her publications include the exhibition catalogue The Immensity of the Universe in the Art of Giovanna Garzoni as well as the edited volumes Artemisia Gentileschi in a Changing Light, Women Artists in Early Modern Italy, and Artiste nel chiostro (co-edited with Luciano Cinelli).

This book is part of the series Illuminating Women Artists and is published in association with Getty Publications. This series is the first to focus in a deliberate and sustained way on women artists throughout history, to recognize their accomplishments, to revive their name recognition, and to make their works better known to art enthusiasts of the 21st century. The first book published in the series was Luisa Roldán (2021). Forthcoming volumes will be dedicated to Barbara Longhi, Elisabetta Sirani, Louise Moillon and Mary Beale, among others.