The Lute Player (Self-Portrait)

The daughter and precocious pupil of the artist Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639), Artemisia was one of the greatest and most influential of the Caravaggesque painters of her generation. Leaving her native Rome in 1612, Artemisia relocated to Florence where her powerful compositions and vigorous naturalism secured the patronage of many Florentine collectors - most notably that of the Grand Duke Cosimo II de'Medici. The discovery in a Medici inventory of an entry that describes "a painting...in which is painted by her own hand the portrait of Artemisia playing the lute," suggests that Cosimo II himself may have commissioned this work. The work demonstrates how the artist often served as her own model, casting herself in a variety of roles. Here, she presents herself as a musician in elegant Florentine dress.