An original and arresting statement of the true nature of women -- reflecting their great strength and depth in its intermingling notes, it utterly rejects cliche about women, specially if you consider that Artemisia was born in Rome on July 8, 1593.

She stunned the Renaissance with her talent, and gained notoriety when she dared to defend herself in court against an attacker, Agostino Tazzi, her father's partner. Her father, Orazio Gentileschi, was the master painter who taught her her craft, but the rift the trial's notoriety caused between them propelled her independent career.

She became celebrated across Europe, considered on a par with her contemporaries, Caravaggio, Velasquez, and Rubens.

Artemisia's courage is reflected in her paintings, which celebrate feminine resilience and resolve through the depiction of their classical subjects.

Four hundred years after her birth, Penhaligon's, the great British fragrance house honors Artemisia by naming a fragrance after her.

With notes of green foliage, moss, sandalwood and sweet amber, Artemisia is a definite "skin scent," with an intimate, complex identity.

The scent experience has been likened to exploring an old-growth forest: rich woods are first announced by a breath of woodland flowers; violet, cyclamen, lily of the valley, crushed under the heel of the huntress.

Warm spices, nectarine, and tea recall the trade influences of the Renaissance, a time that intertwined the world's most exotic cultures into rich imagery.

A true femine/feminist fragrance, Artemisia is fresh, light, lasting and complex, not cloying, a true homage to the woman it was named after.

Green foliage crushed with a hint of green apple offers a fresh and lively introduction to a delicate yet diffusive medley of jasmine tea and floral petal: violet cyclamen, and lily of the valley, sprinkled with fresh nectarines and warm spices.

A final accord of moss, sandalwood and other precious woods, silken musks, and a sweet mysterious amber conclude this fragrance.

Created by Penhaligon, the great British fragrance house, its founder William Penhaligon was Barber and Perfumer to the Royal Court during the reign of Queen Victoria.

Since that time, Penhaligon's has been awarded Royal Warrants by Her Majesty Queen Alexandra in 1903, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh in 1956 and, most recently, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales in 1988.

The company which bears its founder's name has a tradition of honoring historic figures and moments, first with the classic Hammam Bouquet, after the Turkish baths where William began, and with Blenheim Bouquet, in honor of Winston Churchill's ancestral home.

Victorian Posy was created in 1979 in honor of the Victoria and Albert Museum Garden Exhibition. Now Artemisia joins this distinguished company.

Artemisia will be available at Penhaligon's two New York locations, in Saks Fifth Avenue, and at 870 Madison Avenue, and sixteen shops in the United Kingdom starting September 2002.

(1) LaPierre, A. (1998). Artemisia (L. Heron, Trans.). New York: Grove Press.