One of the rare women who managed to make a career out of art, Artemisia Gentileschi, had been forgotten for over two hundred years when Roberto Longhi, a knowledgeable caravaggista scholar, first mentions her in his work. Since him, many scholars have tried to explain the development of the artist whose work was, in many ways, revolutionary in the seventeenth century and still is relevant today. Although mostly mentioned within the context of Caravaggio's followers, many feminist studies and texts, such as those by Mary Garrad, Griselda Pollock and Linda Nochlin, shed light on the potential motivation behind her work – one of a female nature which is held as the only possible source for such remarkable works. However, reducing the artist's expression solely to Caravaggio's influence, or the influence of autobiographical elements, can lead to abridgement of Artemisia's role in the period in which she was active. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to examine, through the analysis of Artemisia's work from different periods of her career, the influence of both factors more closely. By following her life and the multitude artists she, directly or indirectly, had contact with, this paper aims to explain the motivation behind the artist's choice in motifs and iconography in order to rightfully evaluate her opus.