considered one of the greatest artists of her age in florence, revered by everybody, including the mighty mediciso she was incredibly successful incredibly early. but she had had the most terrible start to her career. artemisia gentileschi produced this painting when she was still a teenager working on her father's studio in rome. it depicts the old testament story of the virtuous susanna having to endure the lecherous advances of two old men. unfortunately, artemisia had to put up with much worse. her father was working with an artist called agostino tassi, who assaulted artemisia. she 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 intro

this when i was an undergraduate studying not american history, but italian history, looking at the medici family in florence. i was really struck by the prevalence of disease and the way that disease shapes people's lives on a day-to-day basis that it did not do for us today, and that is probably what fascinates me. germ theory, the introduction to really has radically changed the world we live in. we don't think about running water or sanitary measures, take -- things like hospitals, we all take this for granted. that leads us to having a difficult time empathizing. for understanding the world of the past. to understand that world, we have to think about how different disease was. it would not have been uncommon for most. they would have experience the death of a sibling or parent and we just don't have those appearances today. -- those experiences today. so when i thought about people in the past, for me that is one of the largest differences in the way that they live in the -- and the way that we live. that just fascinates me. leslie lori, of the museum of american history. thank you f

was an undergraduate and i was studying not american history, but italian history, looking at the medici family in the 15th century, 16th century florence. i was really struck by the prevalence of disease and the way disease shapes people's lives on a day-to-day basis that it did not do for us today and that is really what fascinates me. germ theory has radically transformed the world we live in. we never think about this. we never think what it means to turn on the water and expect to have water. we do not think about sanitary measures in places we go to like hospitals. we take this for granted. that i think leads us to have a difficult time empathizing or understanding the world of the past. if we are to understand the world of the past, we have to start by thinking about how very different disease was in that period. it would not have been uncommon for most people, they would have experienced the death of a sibling or parent. we do not have those experiences today. when i thought about people in the past, to me that is one of the largest differences in the way that they live and the w

considered one of the greatest artists of her age in florence, revered by everybody, including the mighty medicid had the most terrible start to her career. artemisia gentileschi produced this painting