Esther before Ahasuerus by Artemisia GentileschiThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
Many of Artemisia's most famous paintings focus on the brave and virtuous women of the Old Testament who triumphed over injustice and adversity.
But in imagining the realities of the events she depicted, Artemisia provided her heroines the support and care of other women.
Judith and Holofernes (ca. 1612-13) by Artemisia GentileschiMuseo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte
In the story of Judith's beheading of Holofernes, the general of the army threatening the Jewish people, Artemisia gives a key role to Judith's maidservant, Abra.
In the original story Judith's maid waits outside the general's tent as her mistress beheads him.
Artemisia not only brings Abra inside the tent, she makes her a vital accomplice.
Even though the general's fist is almost as big as Abra's head, she firmly pins him to the bed as Judith sets to her grim task.
In the picture, Abra's clenched hand sits right above Judith's as the latter pulls the sword across Holofernes' neck.
Lot and His Daughters (about 1636–38) by Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian, 1593–1652/53)The Toledo Museum of Art
In Lot and His Daughters, Artemisia depicts two sisters acting together for the common good of humanity.
Along with their father, they have miraculously survived the destruction of their city, Sodom, which burns in the background.
Their mother is dead – turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at the city as they fled. She is still visible as a tiny figure in the background.
The two sisters, believing they and their father are the only humans left alive, resolve to become pregnant by him in order to continue the family line.
They decide that the only way to achieve this is to get their father drunk.
Whereas other artists often used this scene of seduction to show the sisters naked, or Lot being riotously drunk, Artemisia treats the subject with tenderness and sensitivity.
She shows the sisters acting together, as they gently coax their father to drink.
And suggesting their filial devotion, Artemisia shows their physical movements mirroring his.
Here the legs of the right-hand daughter echo those of her father's.
Esther before Ahasuerus by Artemisia GentileschiThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
In Artemisia's depiction of Esther, it is the loving concern of the young queen's ladies-in-waiting who set the picture's emotional tone.
Esther has come before Ahasuerus to beg him to overturn an order to massacre all the Jews in Persia.
She has been fasting for three days and knows that entering the king's presence unbidden is punishable by death.
As she collapses, her attendants rush to her aid.
This, in turn, prompts Ahasuerus to leap forward from his throne in concern for his brave queen.
Artemisia gave these well-known subjects in 17th-century painting a uniquely female perspective. Through her subtle alterations in recounting these popular stories, she showed brave and resourceful women triumphing through the help and support of their 'sisters'.
