"Artemisia" tells the story of a double initiation; into the art of painting and the art of loving. Orazio uses his daughter to obtain wealth. Too absorbed in his business dealings, he neglects his affective relationship with Artemisia. He betrays her in order to succeed professionally and socially.To save herself, Artemisia rediscovers her own gut creativity and takes her destiny in hand, somewhat like the Grimm's fairy tale "The young girl with no hands". It is always the heroines who have their hands cut off, never the heroes: an expression of feminine creativity stemmed by patriarchal culture. Agostino, in teaching her about perspective, reveals to her not just a new form of freedom, but also another way of using her body. In giving herself over to this anatomical quest she discovers sexual desire. What interested me, was to work on that upsurge of disturbing feelings which accompany awakening sexuality and which can result in artistic creation. Brutally, in an almost unconscious way; she discovers love and the reality of sex on the road of artistic apprenticeship, and is utterly transformed." (Agnès Merlet)