\nIn both depictions, Artemisia holds a palm frond \u2014 symbol of martyrdom \u2014 and wears a crown, pointing to Catherine\u2019s royal birth. The story of this early Christian martyr, as recounted in The Golden Legend, tells of her intellectual triumph over fifty eminent philosophers summoned by the Roman emperor Maxentius to dispute with her, but a young Catherine successfully defended her faith and converted them all. She was sentenced to death and bound to revolving wheels studded with iron spikes, from which she was freed by divine intervention. The instrument of her torture was Catherine\u2019s attribute in art and can be seen here lower left.\n<\/p>\n
By endowing the saint with her own features, she also creates an intimate union between artist and subject, inviting the viewer to read the image as both devotional and self-reflective. \u2018Many of Artemisia\u2019s paintings feature women from the Bible and ancient history as their main protagonists. Such subjects were by no means unusual at the time, but Artemisia brought a particular realism and psychological depth to her heroines\u2019 strength, passion and vulnerability,\u2019 explains Treves. And while the subject matter in this work might have been determined by a patron, she adds, \u2018\u2026what they wanted from her was something no male artist could provide \u2013 a female perspective and sensibility.\u2019\n<\/p>\n
Owning the conversation<\/p>\n
Interest in Artemisia has accelerated significantly since her rediscovery in the 1970s, spurred by feminist art history. She was featured in the landmark 1976 exhibition Women Artists, 1550\u20131950<\/a>, curated by Linda Nochlin and Ann Sutherland Harris, and by artist Judy Chicago\u2019s monumental installation The Dinner Party (1974\u201379) \u2013 permanently on show at the Brooklyn Museum \u2013 which symbolically restored Artemisia to the table of art history. Like Artemisia, Chicago forged a path through determination and insistence on the value of women\u2019s creative labour, both historically and in the present \u2013 a struggle that continues to this day.<\/p>\n