What is Islamic Art

Sex was no game for women, charged with maintaining family honor.

Although Artemisia would later marry and become thefirst woman in the

Academy in 1614, her early life was marked by a trial at which a student of

her father’s was accused of raping (or deflowering) her and she had to attest

to her chastity under torture.^98 The frequent selection of Joseph and

Potiphar’s wife as a theme by artists around Artemisia suggests that they

may have used the scene as commentary on the real-life conflict behind the

trial. Guido Reni (1575–1642), working with Cigoli and Orazio Gentileschi

at the Scipione Borghese, depicted the scene in 1630 and 1631.^99 [Figure 17]

In contrast to Cigoli’sversion,Reni’s earlier version depicts bothfigures as

sad, almost frightened, as the partly nude wife looks with disappointment at

Figure 15Marcantonio Raimondi,Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife, print,c.1490–1534.

Victoria and Albert Museum, DYCE.1001. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

(^98) Cavazzini, 2001 : 282–295. (^99) Christiansen, 2001 :2.
260 The Transgressive Image