her father was working with an artist called agostino tassi, who assaulted artemisia.he fought back, and he raped her. it ended up in a very long trial, the transcript of which can be found over here. it describes how artemisia was tortured, herfingers were crushed, to ensure that she was telling the truth. "it's true, it's true, it's true," she said. tassi was eventually convicted. it would be too simplistic to say that the dramatic violent paintings she produced, such as this, judith beheading holofernes, were in direct response to her ordeal. but there is no doubt that artemisia gentileschi introduced a new female protagonist to painting — a powerful, independent, determined woman. there are 29 paintings in this first ever exhibition of her work in the uk. it makes you wonder, why has it taken so long? artemisia is essentially a rediscovery of the 20th century, it was in the sort of feminist movement of the 1970s that she was really re—evaluated, and i think it'sjust taken her a long time to sort of come back into the art history books and to be recognised as one of