Review Of The Trials Of Artemisia Gentileschi: A Rape As History

In volume thirty-one of The Sixteenth Century Journal, there was an intriguing article called “The Trials of Artemisia Gentileschi: A Rape as History” by Elizabeth S. Cohen. This article describes one of the major life events of Artemisia Gentileschi and how it helped shape her into becoming one of the best female painters of the Baroque Era. Artemisia was born on July 8, 1593 in Rome and the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi, who was a successful Italian painter. In 1605, Artemisia’s mother died which left her father widowed with four children. During this time, many female artists learned the skills to produce art from familial connections, “Following common practice, Orazio taught his children, including the eldest, the family craft.” Artemisia

I understand that the society was more patriarchal and equality was not yet established between males and females but I think that women should not have been treated as objects, “…men dominated women in myriad settings: political, legal, familial, and intellectual” (Cohen, 66). For example, when Artemisia was getting raped by Agostino, it shocked me how she easily accepted, “As soon as Tassi offered a means to repair her damaged honor, her rhetoric moves from violent revenge to compliance” (Cohen, 71). This shows how women undervalued themselves and how they were the ones who had to suffer. Despite the fact that premarital sex was religiously and socially prescribed, it still is wrong since it disregards the whole concept of consent, “…with or without the woman’s consent, premarital defloration did happen…” (Cohen, 58) It does not make sense for a woman to marry a man that has significantly hurt her. In today’s world, with the incident of being raped, there are many physical and psychological harm done to the individual, “Rape may therefore injure body and reputation, but most crucially it attacks the self by violating private boundaries” (Cohen,

Agostino was her dad’s friend that helped “fend off other men” from Artemisia while Tuzia was supposed to act as the mother figure that she lost but instead they both neglected her needs and did more harm than good. It also seemed as though the family would be hurt more than the victim in this type of situation, “The law gauged damage to economic and social assets rather than suffering and psychological trauma” (Cohen, 60). It’s as if they cared more about their financial burden that was inflicted and the effect it would have for the “marriage market” of the girl. The author states that the, “Best reparation was to marry the victim to the criminal…” (Cohen, 60) Honestly, I would think that if this is how they would remedy rape cases today, the victims would have the constant feelings of fear, shame, anger, and guilt along with the feeling of no control. They wouldn’t feel safe in their own marriage with their significant other that is supposed to care, love them, and make them feel whole. I don’t agree with the way that rape cases were handled in this manner during this century in