Read at 3 different speeds

Gentileschi's woman without clothes - 27th January 2023

This painting's by Artemisia Gentileschi. She was a woman artist in the 1600s. Experts are now cleaning the painting. It's in Florence, Italy.

The picture was for the house of the famous artist Michelangelo. His nephew asked Gentileschi to paint it. That was in 1616.

Then, Gentileschi was only 22. It's a picture of herself. At first, the woman was without clothes. But after 60 years, another artist changed it. He painted a blue scarf on the woman's body.

Today, experts like Elizabeth Wicks cannot take off the scarf. But they can see Gentileschi's first painting. They use X-rays.

Elizabeth Wicks: "As we say in Italian "è stato rivoltato come un guanto", it's been turned inside out like a glove with all of the diagnostic techniques possible to understand how the painting was conceived, how it was painted, what happened to it afterwards and to see if we can read beneath the veils of censorship that were added to the painting."

Gentileschi was a woman in a man's world. Nearly all artists were men. And she was very good too. Her paintings cost lots of money.

Linda Falcone's working on the project.

Linda Falcone:"The idea is to create a conversation around art by women, the fact that they were protagonists in their time. They had to be not only great painters but great diplomats. She had to know how to market herself, and that's what she's actually doing with the painting because not only is she tributing Michelangelo but she's saying, 'I as a woman have the inclination to paint'."

Falcone thinks the project's very important, for women and art.