In Renaissance Italy, Artemisia Gentileschi endures the subjugation of women that allows her father to take credit for her extraordinary paintings, rape and the ensuing trial, and torture, buoyed by her deceased mother's stories of strong women of the Bible.
Her mother died when she was twelve, and suddenly Artemisia Gentileschi had to choose: a life as a nun in a convent or a life grinding pigment for her father's paint. She chose paint. By the time she was seventeen, Artemisia did more than grind pigment. She was one of Italy's most talented painters, even if no one knew her name. But Rome in 1610 was a city where men took what they wanted from women, and in the aftermath of rape Artemisia faced another choice: be silent or tell the truth, no matter the cost. I will show you what a woman can do. Joy McCullough's bold novel in verse is a portrait of an artist as a young woman, filled with the soaring highs of inspiration and the devastating setbacks of a system built to break her. McCollough weaves Artemisia's heartbreaking story with the stories of the ancient heroines Susanna and Judith, who become not only the subjects of two of Artemisia's most famous paintings but sources of strength as she battles to paint a young woman's timeless truth in the face of all-too-familiar violence. -- From dust jacket.