During the late 16th century, Rome was at the heart of the Renaissance. The city inspired artists, scholars, and musicians. In the1590s, many people traveled to Rome to visit churches and palaces that were decorated by artists such as the Carracci brothers and Caravaggio.
There in that Rome lived a well respected painter named Orazio Gentileschi. To Orazio and Prudentia Monotone Gentilschi was born their first child in 1593. They named their only daughter Artemisia. With training from her father she followed in his footsteps and became a painter.
Her mother died when Artemisia was twelve. This left Artemisia in a household of men - three brothers, her father and her father's artist friends. Caravaggio visited the Gentileschi home, where Artemisia saw his art works. His chiaroscuro style greatly influenced Artemisia Gentileschi's work. Caravaggio died when Artemisia was seventeen years old. That same year she completed her first known painting, Susanna and the Elders (1610). This painting describes how vulnerable a woman is in a male world. .
A few months after she finished her first painting, Artemisia had a traumatic experience. Her father had a tenant named Tuzia living in the upstairs apartment. Her father also had a friend named Agostino Tassi. Tassi was a painter who often came to visit Orazio. Artemisia accused Tassi of raping her in 1612 and she believed that Tuzia had arranged the whole ordeal.
After the rape, Orazio filed a law suit against Tassi. Artemisia was forced to undergo a very humiliating public trial in which she was tortured. She had to have a medical exam to prove that she was a virgin before the rape had occurred and her reputation as a woman and an artist was questioned. As an unmarried woman who was not a virgin, she was classified as "damaged property". Tassi had promised marriage but he claimed that Artemisia was promiscuous and he failed to uphold his promise.
After the trial, Artemisia continued painting and she began to develop her more distinct personal style.