HuffPost Arts&Culture is celebrating Women's History Month with the help of our favorite artists -- female artists, of course. Every day of March we're rolling out a new key player in the art world with a playing card... Get it? Print them out for your own amazing (although probably a bit flimsy) card deck or use them to stay fresh on your favorite women in art.
ACE OF DIAMONDS
WHAT: Gentileschi created dramatic, fierce and incredibly masterful Baroque paintings in the era following Caravaggio. Most well-known for "Judith Slaying Holofernes" (1614), Gentileschi often portrayed strong, suffering women.
WHERE: "Judith Slaying Holofernes" resides in the permanent collection of the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.
WHY: In her day, Gentileschi's career and talent were overshadowed by the fact that she was raped and had the nerve to prosecute her attacker. Despite the haters, the fiercely progressive artist was the first female painter to be admitted as a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno. Also, she painted this when she was 17. Not bad for "just a girl," right?
Images:
Front top: Self-portrait. 1630s, Royal Collection, London. Wiki Commons.
Back: Judith Slaying Holofernes (1614–20) Oil on canvas 199 x 162 cm Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence. Wiki Commons.