Scenes is historical fiction. Understanding the historical pieces of the play can be exponentially helpful. On my first read of Scenes I had no idea that this show was based upon the work of an artist named Artemisia Gentileschi. To understand the impact that a female artist had post-renaissance and during the Baroque period of Italy is wonderous. These links will hopefully set the history behind the play in a light that previously was dim. Many of the links below cover her life and her art, but simply that is what Artemisia was really about: her art in her life.
The Life and Art of Artemisia
http://www.artemisia-gentileschi.com/index.shtml
This website does almost a slide show of Artemsia's paintings, when they were painted and what was going on in Artemesia's life when she did the painting.
Obligatory Wikipedia website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemisia_Gentileschi
As with most Wikipedia sites, it is more of an overall projection of Galactia. It has a very in depth biography of her life. It also has an interesting section about her and her relationship with popular culture that might be beneficial.
Painting Gallery of her work
http://www.svreeland.com/image-gal.html
This is simply a gallery of her work.
Bio, gallery, about the movie, rape.
http://www.webwinds.com/artemisia/artemisia.htm
This has a biography on her, other websites about her painting, an explanation of her paintings, and interestingly has the first information that I have found about a possible rape of Artemisia. It lastly goes into an explanation of the movie about her.
More in-depth biography
http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/baroque/Artemisia-Gentileschi.html
A very in-depth biography supplemented with her work.
