Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished 17th-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing professional work by the age of 15. In an era when women had few opportunities to pursue artistic training or work as professional artists, Gentileschi was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence and she had an international clientele.
Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, 1638–39
Judith and her Maidservant, 1625, Detroit Institute of Arts
Susanna and the Elders, 1610, earliest of her surviving works, Schönborn Collection, Pommersfelden
Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist, c. 1610–1615, Budapest
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of his life, he moved between Naples, Malta, and Sicily until his death. His paintings have been characterized by art critics as combining a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, which had a formative influence on Baroque painting.
Chalk portrait of Caravaggio, c. 1621
Basket of Fruit, c. 1595–1596, oil on canvas, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan
The Musicians, 1595–1596, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy (c. 1595), Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford