Susanna and the Elders

By 1622 Artemisia Gentileschi had returned to Rome as an established, independent painter, something almost no woman of her time achieved. She signed this canvas that year, adding the name Lomi, her family's name in Florence, where she had built her reputation. The subject comes from the Bible: Susanna, bathing in her garden, is cornered by two older men who threaten to accuse her of adultery unless she submits to them. Artemisia paints her turning away, one hand raised against them, her distress plain rather than decorative. The handling is so confident and so deep in Caravaggesque shadow that for a while the painting was thought to be by Caravaggio himself. It has hung at Burghley House in England since at least the 1700s.