Artemisia

Artemisia Gentileschi, apprenticed at an early age to her father, the seventeenth-century painter Orazio Gentileschi, rapidly became more famous than he was, for her rich, dramatic canvases. But her fame was tarnished by scandal. At the age of seventeen, she was violently raped by Agostino Tassi, an artist friend of Orazio's. On discovering Tassi's betrayal, Orazio took the case to court and there followed, in 1612, eight months of humiliation for Artemisia as the inhabitants of Rome's colourful artists' quarter came to give evidence. Their testimony - frank, partial, often cruel - in this first rape trial ever to be fully documented, made Artemisia and her father notorious.
Lapierre's determination to understand Artemisia and her complex rivalry with her father would not let her rest until she had unearthed every scrap of evidence about their lives - including the missing verdict to the trial which had lain hidden in a neglected corner of the archives.