Arcadópolis
Violence. This work is shown blurred, as in the Museum.Show work
Jael and Sisera
Artemisia Gentileschi, 1620
What you see
Sisera sleeps stretched out on the ground from left to right, his head beside Jael’s knees. Kneeling on the right, she raises a mallet in one hand and with the other holds a tent peg near his head. Her face is calm and focused. Behind them on the left, a stone pedestal balances the composition and fills the empty space above his legs.
The background is nearly black, and light from the left falls on the man’s legs, his red jerkin and Jael’s yellow dress. His blue garments shine with cool highlights. Look for the hilt of a sword lying on the ground in the lower left corner, and for the white cloth tied around Sisera’s leg at the edge of the picture.
About Artemisia Gentileschi
Artemisia Gentileschi learned to paint in Rome, in the studio of her father Orazio, a follower of Caravaggio, from whom she took the strong contrasts of light and shadow. In 1616 she became the first woman admitted to the Academy of the Arts of Drawing in Florence, and later worked in Venice, London and Naples for nobles and kings. She painted above all heroines from the Bible and history with uncommon force and resolve; after centuries of neglect, she is today one of the most admired painters of the Baroque.
More by Artemisia Gentileschi
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