Introduction Two years ago I was in Milan at an exhibition entitled: “Artemisia: story of a passion”. The exhibition was sponsored by the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Milan and curated by Roberto Contini and Francesco Solinas, with the scenographic and theatrical work of Emma Dante. Artemisia Gentileschi (Rome 1593 - Naples 1652/53) was a Roman painter, daughter of the painter Orazio Gentileschi and Prudenza Montone (died when Artemisia was twelve years old). The first of six children (all boys), at a very young age she was initiated into painting by her father, a follower of Caravaggio. In 1612 the rape trial began, which marked Artemisia's entire life. She was fifteen and her rapist, Agistino Tassi, about 32. At the beginning of the year Artemisia declared that the previous year, in her house on Via della Croce, her perspective teacher had raped her. Agostino Tassi, after the rape, had deluded himself into marrying her - inducing the girl to behave more uxorio - but when she discovered the deception, she informed her father who resorted to justice. To confirm the accusations he had to undergo further interrogations under torture. Tassi was convicted and spent eight months in prison in Corte Savella, but the case was eventually dropped. Subsequently Agostino and Orazio Gentileschi reunited, forgetting what had happened. Apparently the tolerance threshold for violence against women was very low in society at the time. Undoubtedly Artemisia made a great effort to rehabilitate herself from the history of rape through the arranged marriage, but above all through her career. Unfortunately, the episode overshadowed part of the artistic achievements of Artemisia, who for a long time was considered a "curiosity... means of paper..." she established herself as an artist in the 17th century, which for a woman was not so trivial! Works cited • GRISELDA POLLOCK, review of “Artemisia Gentileschi: The image of the female hero in Italian Baroque art”, THE ART BULLETIN SEPTEMBER 1990 VOLUME, LXXII NUMBER• MARY D. GARRARD, “Artemisia Gentileschi: The image of the female hero in Italian Baroque Art”, Princeton, Princeton, University Press, 1989.• RODERICK CONWAY MORRIS, “Artemisia: Her Passion Was Painting Above All Else”, New York Times, published November 18, 2011• CELESTINE BOHLEN, “Elusive Heroine of the Baroque; Artist Colored by Distortion, Legend and a Notorious Trial,” New York Times, published February 18, 2002 • DEBORAH SOLOMON, “Out of the Past, An Ur-Feminist Finds Stardom,” New York Times, published May 3, 1998 • JORG ZUTTER, “EXHIBITION REVIEW,” Renaissance Studies vol. 27 n. 1