Bad Girls: Art History’s Fiercest Femme Fatales

From Eve to Salome, Cleopatra to Delilah, Medusa to Pandora, ‘bad girls’ have inspired artists throughout history.

Dangerous women have always been popular subjects for painters but certain periods saw the image of the femme fatale rise to particular prominence. Why? How do images of the femme fatale reflect the societies that produced them? How did the painters make these highly erotic works socially acceptable?

This art history study day will explore the fiercest ‘bad girls’ in art history. Expect decapitations, betrayals, forbidden passions and powerfully seductive women.

We’ll look at a range of images and explore works by well-known artists including Titian, Caravaggio, Gentileschi, Rossetti, Waterhouse and Klimt, as well as lesser known images by artists such as Bernardino Luini, Carlo Dolci and Henri Regnault.