5 extraordinary female artists who have left a mark in the History of Art

The world of art is historically a world dominated by men, very little has been said about women artists compared to men artists, but this does not mean that there have not been women who have left their permanent mark in the history of art. Today we want to remember five great artists who have given their contribution to the world of art from the Renaissance to today.

Artemisia Gentileschi
It is impossible to talk about women in the history of art without mentioning the famous Artemisia Gentileschi, a Roman painter of the Caravaggio school, active during the first half of the 17th century.
Her father was the well-known painter Orazio, but although Artemisia was born into art, it was not at all easy for her to create a place for herself in this world. This passion of hers was indeed the cause of her greatest pain, because it brought her under the guidance of the painter Agostino Tassi, master of trompe-l'œil perspective, who sexually abused her, taking advantage of Orazio's absence. Following what happened, the man even promised to marry her to make up for the "damage", a promise that ultimately he didn’t keep, and Artemisia, being the strong woman that she was, never accepted to bow her head and let Tassi go unpunished. She reported the incident and brought a trial against the painter, that even led her to suffer public humiliation and physical torture. Despite this, she never retracted her testimony. Agostino Tassi was eventually found guilty and sentenced to exile from Rome, a sentence which however he never served because he had Roman clients who required his presence in the city.
Artemisia had to move to Florence to leave that horrible story behind her, but her pains were not entirely in vain, she became a symbol of international feminism and went down in history as a woman determined to fight for her rights and to pursue her artistic career, despite the prejudices and enormous difficulties she encountered.
Artemisia was truly an excellent artist and too often her personal affairs took precedence over her talent. She was able to masterfully learn the lessons of Caravaggio and to give her works of similar dramatic and theatrical emphasis.
One of her most famous paintings is undoubtedly Judith Beheading Holofernes (1616-17) preserved in the Uffizi Gallery, of which there is also another version in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples.

Fede Galizia
Fede Galizia was a painter contemporary of Artemisia Gentileschi, also born into art, who began working in her father's workshop when she was only 12 years old.
Known mainly for her still life paintings, she is in fact considered the initiator of the still life genre together with Ambrogio Figino and Caravaggio.
She specialized in paintings of centerpieces, flowers and fruit arrangements painted with exceptional precision and attention to details.
Her painting A Glass compote with Peacher, jasmine flowers, quinces and a grasshopper was  sold for over 2 million euros at an auction at Sotheby's.

Tamara de Lempicka
The Polish painter Tamara de Lempicka (born Maria Gurwik-Górska) arrived in France from St. Petersburg fleeing from the Russian revolutionary uprisings. In Paris she joined the Art Déco movement and became an icon of the 1920s.
She was an eccentric and fascinating artist, she depicted women as provocative and haughty, very elegant and seductive. Women with a strong character painted with equally strong and lively colours. Her style was characterized by the depiction of statue-like figures through the use of well-defined lines and volumes, and colors applied in flat color fields.
The pop star Madonna has become one of the main collectors of the works of Tamara de Lempicka, and she has often taken inspiration from the works of the Polish painter for her outfits, contributing to the rediscovery of this artist in modern times.