Artemisia Gentileschi is the most celebrated female artist of the 17th century.
And she's perhaps the best known today.
I think Artemisia is exceptional
in the sense that she took on those big historical and Biblical subjects.
She brings something very very different to these subjects
that every other artist in the 17th century was painting as well.
Artemisia is an artist whose life story
has somewhat overshadowed her art.
It is well known that she was raped by the painter Agostino Tassi in 1611
when she was just seventeen.
The story of her rape has in some ways defined the way
art historians have talked about her for many many years now.
I would argue that there were other experiences
in her life that also shaped her and shaped her art.
Artemisia was born in Rome.
Her mother died when she was twelve,
and she was brought up by her father Orazio
who was an established painter in Rome.
Her father, Orazio, trained Artemisia in his own workshop,
along with her three brothers.
But Artemisia was clearly the most talented of all his children.
She herself was a mother and lost four of her five children
and all of these life experiences must surely have deeply affected her.
After training in Rome
she moved to Florence
and in Florence she really transformed herself
and became an independent artist.
She was the first woman to gain membership to the artist's academy there.
She learned how to read and write in Florence.
She moved in intellectual circles
and through these people she also obtained commissions.
When Artemisia returned to Rome in 1620
after a few years in Florence
she was extremely successful,
her works were sought after
and we know from a letter written by her husband
that her house is full of cardinals and princes wanting pictures from her.
Artemisia spent, more or less, the last 25 years of her life in Naples,
where she set up a very successful workshop.
Whilst Artemisia worked in Naples she also teamed up with local artists
so there are some paintings that are collaborations.
The fact that Artemisia managed to set up a successful business in Naples
it is extraordinary given that she wasn't employed by the court,
she wasn't protected by a wealthy husband or a single patron.
The National Gallery recently acquired a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi,
which is a self portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria.
This has gone some way in redressing the balance of paintings
by female artists in our collection
but we didn't just buy this picture because it's by a woman.
Artemisa had been on our wish list for a very long time.
She is one of the most important followers of Caravaggio
and this picture just ticked a lot of boxes for us.
So Artemisia is looking out from the picture.
She's very tightly cropped
in half length, with very dramatic lighting.
The figure we're looking at is Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Egypt
who was said to be of noble birth
which is why she's often shown with the crown.
But the halo and then the martyr's palm that she holds so delicately to her chest
point to the fact that she's a saint,
she's a martyr.
She was tortured and tied to spiked wheels.
But she was actually freed from those wheels by an angel.
So what you see is the broken wheel of her torture, that she's overcome.
The firm but gentle way her hand sort of rests on the instrument of her torture
I think is very powerful.
And a sort of quiet resilience in this picture
and if you look carefully she has a sort of little furrowed brow,
this kind of determination.
It's a picture that we felt could speak to people in many different ways.
The National Gallery acquisition has made me get to know Artemisia
both as a woman, but also as an artist
and I've really grown to love her.
Artemisia still feels very relevant today
because I think people really identify with her story.
The force of her pictures is something that really stands out
among her contemporaries.
As she said in one of her letters
she said "she had the spirit of Caesar in the soul of a woman"
and I think that just encapsulates perfectly what Artemisia's all about.