Art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon and Sotheby’s specialist George Gordon delve into the work of two extraordinary female Baroque painters, Artemisia Gentileschi and Clara Peeters. Gentileschi’s dramatic David and Goliath captures the moment after victory, with David exuding youthful confidence and pride as he sits over the severed head of Goliath. The painting is a masterclass in light, shadow, and psychological nuance, from the intricately foreshortened limbs and billowing sleeves to the tension between David’s heroic pose and the brutal evidence of violence at his feet. Clara Peeters’ rarely seen still life, painted around 1610, offers something even more unusual—a fully realised self-portrait embedded within an exquisite arrangement of objects and flowers. Known for her meticulous technique and reflective goblets containing miniature self-images, this work stands out as the only secular self-portrait in her known oeuvre. Peeters’ composition reveals not just technical brilliance b...