The most important thing though, is that it has been 400 years since the events that this book was based on transpired, and nothing has changed. Toen ik hoorde dat mijn favoriete auteur, Fremantle die gekend is voor haar Tudor en Stuartboeken, een fictieboek over haar zou uitbrengen was ik natuurlijk ontzettend blij.

In a novel as vivid and powerful as the paintings made by its main character, Fremantle tells the story of Artemisia Gentileschi, Renaissance artist and feminist icon.

However, when commissions aren’t coming in as much as they hoped, Orazio wants to marry his daughter off to a wealthy husband. This is the story of a young girl being wronged and trying to gain recognition for it and, above all, escape from it. In Fremantle’s version of the story, the women of the paintings are not merely things to be ogled at; their stories are told in translated interludes.

All that wonderful characterisation aside, this novel is fast paced, exciting, horrifying, gruesome, infuriating and while I cannot admit to ever having a keen interest in the history of art, you guessed it I’m off down a carmine red rabbit hole. I first found Gentileschi’s work when having to profile a female in the arts (in French), and so glad to have found this book to give her life story to a wider audience.Extraordinary because she was working at a time when women were mere chattels and to attempt to make her mark, to compete in a man's world and to go against her father's wishes was a dangerous game, and one she suffered for.

The plot is based on the real and significant happenings in Artemisia Gentileschi’s life and provoked very strong emotions from me. Rome during this time was the major religious and cultural centre in Italy and Artemisia’s story will be familiar. As Artemisia patiently goes from lesson to lesson, perfecting her craft, she also paints in private, recreating the women who inspire her, away from her father's eyes. The motif of the Hermaphroditus figure appears as an attempt for Artemisia to grasp at breaking the gender binary, and there's a lovely scene where she draws a man in a dress to try and better understand gender taboos.As well as Artemisia, there are other characters in the novel who are equally well drawn; I’ve already mentioned Tassi and Artemisia’s father Orazio, but there’s also Zita, who becomes a model and chaperone for Artemisia, and Piero, Orazio’s assistant. Her father is her early influence and mentor in developing her paint style, but she eclipses him as a teenager and he can't face it. It is intimate in a way I can't articulate, and deeply personal to me in a way I will never be able to explain.

Artemisia wants to become an artist but she lives in a mans world,which includes her father following rules,. Elizabeth Fremantle had created a novel about a lady who is someone we should all revere and respect. The reader can't help but want her to overcome the many obstacles and prejudices that she and her family endure so that she can continue to be true to herself. The language of the novel is beautiful, focusing a lot on the language of colour and observation, as you would expect from a story about an artist.I think the author has done a terrific job portraying a convincing version of events with fleshed out characters who you can really love and loathe. There is a scene where Gentileschi decries Caravaggio's Judith as being too sexual-- after all, we can see the shape of her nipples through her dress.