Gentileschi: 'Susanna and the Elders,' 1610.
The Naked Self-Portrait: Women. 3: Violation. Artemisia Gentileschi's 'Susanna and the Elders' (1610 version). Illustration 1: 'Susanna and the Elders,' 1610, by Artemisia Gentileschi (c.1593-1652). Not precisely self portraits, Gentileschi's series of 'Susanna and the Elders' paintings (1610, 1622 and 1649) function as a form of autoportrait 'by proxy.' The 1610 version is viewed as a breakthrough work (she was approximately sixteen years old) in which there may be coincidental biographical connections to the theme. The fact that it was completed only a year before the artist's rape, by Agostino Tassi (a painter who worked with her father, Orazio , during a period in which Artemisia was probably 'groomed' by both Tassi and a papal clerk, Cosimo Quorli ), stimulates an alternative discussion regarding her level of identification with the subject: Susanna. Illustration 2: (top) Agostino Tassi - consi