Brush with Scandal

ARTEMISIA UNEARTHS A 17TH-CENTURY RAPE TRIAL

Although the bold, violent paintings of Artemisia Gen tileschi hang in some of the world's most famous muse ums, her work has long been neglected by art historians distracted by her scandalous reputation. The most important female painter of the Italian Baroque—and one of the first women ever to make a living from her art—Artemisia led an audacious life, traveling through 17th-century Europe to execute commissions for patrons ranging from King Charles I of England to the Medicis and Michelangelo the Younger in Italy. But history has fixated on the rape trial that tainted her name at age 17, when her father—the celebrated painter Orazio Gentileschi—accused a fellow painter named Agostino Tassi of raping his brilliant and beautiful daughter. Historians have argued ever since about whether Artemisia was an innocent victim or a rampaging libertine deliberately flouting the sexual mores of her time. A 1997 film called Artemisia further fueled the controversy by portraying her rapist as a tender gallant and Artemisia as not only willing but adoring, prompting howls of outrage from feminist historians. Now comes the most comprehensive treatment ever in a new book that is already an international best-seller abroad. Published in England as a "narrative biography" and in America as a novel because of reconstructed scenes and dialogue, Alexandra Lapierre's Artemisia, out this month from Grove, represents five years of exhaustive research that uncovered new historical documents. The surviving records include actual transcripts of the seven-month rape trial, complete with the testimony of Tassi, a lying scoundrel, and of Orazio and Artemisia, who was cross-examined under torture—a common practice believed to elicit the truth from victims in agony. Even under thumbscrews, Artemisia never faltered, providing history with a story that has remained riveting for 400 years—and with a heroine for the ages.

LESLIE BENNETTS