While the city’s galleries are closed, we're delving into the lives of London's favourite artworks. We want to bring you closer to these masterpieces, with the help of the experts and curators who know more about them than most.
This week it's Artemisia Gentileschi's Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, which can be found at the National Gallery.
What's the story behind the painting?
“Artemisia assumes the role of a fourth-century martyr saint who was tortured and ultimately died for her faith,” says Letizia Treves, the National Gallery’s James and Sarah Sassoon Curator of Later Italian, Spanish, and French 17th-century Paintings. Treves is also the curator of the gallery’s major Artemisia exhibition, which had to be put on hold when museums closed.
“She shows herself with Saint Catherine’s attributes (the symbols by which she can be identified): a crown, halo, martyr’s palm and a broken wheel studded with iron spikes. The last of these refers to the instrument of her torture – Catherine was bound to revolving wheels but was freed through divine intervention.
“The painting dates from about 1615–17, when Artemisia was in her early twenties. She had recently arrived in Florence from Rome, where she had been born and been trained by her painter-father Orazio Gentileschi. It was in Florence that Artemisia’s career as a painter really took off, working for the powerful Medici family and becoming the first woman to join the artists’ academy in 1616 (around the time that this picture was painted).”
An interesting fact
“Recent studies have shown that this work started out as a self portrait and it was only at a later stage in the painting process that Artemisia transformed herself into Saint Catherine, possibly to satisfy a patron’s demands,” says Treves.
“The 17th century canvas on which this picture is painted is made up of two pieces of cloth, stitched together approximately 7cm from the bottom edge – you can still see the stitches along the seam if you look really closely.”
The London story
This is the only painting by Artemisia Gentileschi in a UK public collection. “The painting was only discovered in 2017, when it came up for sale in France,” adds Treves. “The National Gallery was able to acquire it in July 2018 but it didn’t immediately go on display. The picture underwent a months-long conservation treatment, which the public were able to follow in almost real time through a series of short films (still available via the Gallery’s YouTube channel).
“In 2019 the painting went on a tour of unusual venues in the UK, including a library, GP surgery, girls’ school and women’s prison.”
Why we love it
Artemisia Gentileschi was as much a remarkable person as a remarkable artist. She used her paintbrush to create radical depictions of women, showing them in ways her male contemporaries rarely had. The women in her artworks are active participants, wielding their own power and creativity, rather than sitting passively.
Gentileschi suffered greatly in her life, but turned this into her art. Saint Catherine of Alexandria was another woman who endured horrific trauma; the wheel in this portrait was the instrument of her torture, yet she grips it and shows she's in control of her own story. It isn’t surprising that Gentileschi felt an affinity with her subject matter.
Where you can see it
The painting is in the National Gallery’s permanent collection, so you can learn all about it in detail on their website here. There is also plenty of information on other aspects of Gentileschi’s life, including letters in her own hand that show just how passionate and determined she was as a woman as well as an artist.
A series of films on the website chart the restoration of Gentileschi’s self-portrait after it was acquired by the gallery.
Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria will be the centrepiece of the National Gallery’s upcoming Artemisia exhibition, the first of its kind in the UK. It has been put on hold due to the temporary closure of the gallery, but will be rescheduled – so keep an eye out. This is not an exhibition to miss!
