Ulysses finding Achilles at the Court of King Lycomedes

This painting spent a long time under the wrong name. When it resurfaced on the Milan art market in 2005, it was taken for the work of Orazio Gentileschi, and only afterward did scholars come to see the hand of his daughter Artemisia in it, a view now widely held. The two worked in a close, shared style, which is part of why the confusion lasted. The story is a favourite of the period. To keep him from the Trojan War, the young Achilles was hidden among the daughters of King Lycomedes, dressed as one of the girls. The cunning Ulysses laid out gifts that included a sword, and the disguised boy reached for the weapon and gave himself away. Artemisia catches that instant, the hand closing on the blade among the trinkets.