Set in Italy in 1610,Artemisia is the story of a seventeen-year old girl determined to study art,even though women are not allowed to enter the Academy,let alone study the male form.She persuades her father to let her work on a series of relighious paintings being painted by artist Agostino Tassi.Tassi forces himself on her,and through this violent experience she fills her work with desire and suffering,going on to achieve greatness.