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.

Artemisia's Gentilischi's Giuditta che decapita Oloferne (Judith beheading Holofernes) (1612–1613), displayed in the Capodimonte Museum of Naples, is impressive for the violence portrayed.

She had in 1612 been denied access to the all-male professional academies for art, her early talent notwithstanding.

Her father had been working with Agostino Tassi to decorate the vaults of Casino della Rose inside the Pallavicini Rospigliosi Palace in Rome, so Orazio had hired the painter to tutor his daughter privately.

During this tutelage, Tassi had raped Artemisia.

Another man, Cosimo Quorlis, had helped Tassi with the rape.

After the initial rape, Artemisia had continued to have sexual relations with Tassi, with the expectation that they were going to be married.

However, Tassi had reneged on his promise to marry Artemisia after he heard the rumor that she was having an affair with another man.

Quorlis had threatened that if he could not have her, he would publicly humiliate her.

Orazio had pressed charges against Tassi only after he learned that Artemisia and Tassi were not going to be married.

Orazio also claimed that Tassi had stolen a painting of Judith from the Gentileschi household.

The major issue of this trial was the fact that Tassi had deflowered Artemisia.

If Artemisia had not been a virgin before Tassi raped her, the Gentileschis would not have been able to press charges.

In the ensuing seven-month trial, it is discovered that Tassi had planned to murder his wife, had enjoined in adultery with his sister-in-law, and had planned to steal some of Orazio’s paintings.

During the trial, Artemisia had been given a gynecological examination and had been tortured using thumbscrews.

At the end of the trial Tassi had been sentenced to one year's imprisonment.

The trial subsequently will influence the feminist view of Artemisia Gentileschi during the late twentieth century.

One month after the trial, in order to restore his daughter's honor, Orazio had arranged for her to marry Pierantonio Stiattesi, a modest artist from Florence.

Artemisia and Pierantonio had moved shortly after their marriage to Florence, where Artemisia receives a commission for a painting at Casa Buonarroti and becomes a successful court painter, enjoying the patronage of the Medici family and Charles I of England.

It has been proposed that during this period Artemisia also painted the Madonna col Bambino (The Virgin and Child), currently in the Spada Gallery, Rome.