Funsavers: Artemisia

Artemisia Gentileschi changed the history of art for women yet is widely unknown outside (and even inside) the art community. Her experiments with the color palette created “Gentileschi amber” and developed new ways to color and fix paintings. She was the first woman to be allowed to attend art school, become a sponsored artist of Cosimo DeMedici, paint scenes of Biblical violence, and try a man for rape.

She also faced the same struggles that women artists face today. She fought against sexism and sexual aggression, plagiarism, and repression. Her paintings reflect her violent struggle against her time.

Playwright, Lee Kiszonas of Philadelphia created Artemisia as a wild ride of fact and fantasy that takes the audience through the canals, cathedrals, and studios of Venice with malingering artists, murderous courtesans, and malicious barmaids. It is a celebration of art, women in art, and a lesson that history is bound to repeat itself, in art as in life.