ABSTRACT
The difference between Artemisia's and Orazio's treatment of female figures is more fundamental, however, than their approaches to anatomical drawing. While women figure prominently in Orazio's paintings, in such themes as Judith and Holofernes, Lot and His Daughters, the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, or St. Cecilia, their range of expression is basically passive. By contrast, Artemisia's Detroit and Pitti Judiths react to specific danger from a single direction, indicating that the threat is both life-sized and local. The Schonborn Susanna behaves more like Artemisia's Judiths than Orazio's, in her physically active resistance of her oppressors and in her expressive intensity. The uniqueness of Artemisia's interpretation is confirmed by the existence of two examples of the Susanna theme that are based in part upon her version. Artemisia's reputation figured prominently in her rape experience, a fact attested by Orazio's speedy arrangement of her marriage to a Florentine shortly after the trial to spare her glare of publicity in Rome.
