How did Artemisia Gentileschi use Caravaggio’s dramatic light-and-dark technique?

Artemisia Gentileschi, a prominent Baroque artist, was significantly influenced by the dramatic light-and-dark technique known as chiaroscuro, which was radicalized by Caravaggio.21

Gentileschi employed this technique to imbue her historical and religious scenes with intense drama and psychological tension. In her masterpiece, Judith Beheading Holofernes (1620), she utilized Caravaggio’s dramatic lighting to create a "semicircle of brilliantly lit action". By focusing the light sharply on the figures and the violent act, she made the subject the unavoidable center of the viewer's attention, effectively using the contrast between light and dark to heighten the immediacy and emotional impact of the narrative.31

While she adopted Caravaggio’s powerful use of light, Gentileschi distinguished her work through her own explicit and muscular interpretation of these subjects, moving beyond mere imitation to establish herself as a leading figure in Western art.31