Artemisia Gentileschi, Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, about 1615-17

The above painting sold to the National Gallery in London

 for £3.6 million this month—a record for its artist, Artemisia Gentileschi, a renowned Italian Baroque painter. It also happens to be only the twentieth work by a female artist in the gallery’s collection, which contains more than 2,300 European paintings. Aged eighteen, the artist had endured “thumbscrew-like torture”at her own rape trial—to ensure she was telling the truth. This defiant work alludes to her ordeal, and also to her tremendously unbreakable strength.