Artemisia Gentileschi

Welcome back to Art Talk, and Part 2 of The Gaze Reclaimed. In this episode, we delve into the extraordinary life of Artemisia Gentileschi, who transformed the depiction of women in Western art.

From the Renaissance to today, visual culture has shaped—and often violated—women’s bodies. Art historian Catherine McCormack critiques this long history, revealing how so-called masterpieces often masked political power and patriarchal control behind myth and beauty.

But Artemisia changed the rules. A survivor, a painter, and a rebel, she reimagined the gaze—offering empathy, resistance, and power through brush and body.

Learn how Gentileschi reclaims biblical heroines and inserts herself as the protagonist—subverting the male gaze and reasserting the female subject.

Topics covered:

• Titian, power, and imperial desire


• Mythology as political propaganda


• Artemisia’s Susannah and the Elders & Self-Portrait as a Lute Player


• Reclaiming trauma through self-representation


• Feminism and agency in early modern art

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