Esther Before Ahasuerus (Artemisia Gentileschi)
Esther Before Ahasuerus is a painting by the 17th-century Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi. It shows the biblical heroine Esther going before Ahasuerus to beg him to spare her people. The painting is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, having been donated to the museum by Elinor Dorrance Ingersoll in 1969. It is one of Gentileschi's lesser known works, but her use of lighting, characterization, and style help in successfully portraying Esther as a biblical heroine as well as the main protagonist of the work.
Esther Before Ahasuerus (Artemisia Gentileschi)
Esther Before Ahasuerus (1547–48), Tintoretto, Royal Collection.
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