Artemisia Gentileschi, born in Rome on July 8, 1593, as the eldest child of the Tuscan painter Orazio Gentileschi, had been introduced to painting in her father's workshop, showing much more talent than her brothers, who worked alongside her.

She had learned drawing, how to mix color and how to paint.

Since her father's style had taken inspiration from Caravaggio during that period, her style had been just as heavily influenced in turn, but her approach to subject matter is different from her father's, as her paintings are highly naturalistic, where Orazio's are idealized.

The first work of the young seventeen-year-old Artemisia (even if many at the time suspected that she was helped by her father) had been the Susanna e i Vecchioni (Susanna and the Elders) (1610, Schönborn collection in Pommersfelden).

The picture shows how Artemisia has assimilated the realism of Caravaggio without being indifferent to the language of the Bologna school (which had had Annibale Carracci among its major artists).

It is one of the few Susanna paintings showing the two men planning their sexual harassment.

It is likely that Artemisia had been sexually harassed and has painted Susanna as a reflection.