This is the most amazing picture.
We're taking our star painting to places a painting would never normally go to.
We are so excited.
This is something the National Gallery has never, ever done before.
It is about taking paintings to people and not expecting them to come into museums and galleries.
This picture just speaks to people.
"You will find the spirit of Caesar in this soul of a woman."
It's a really big day for us today.
We're here at Glasgow Women's Library for the first stop of Artemisia Visits.
We're taking Artemisia Gentileschi's 'Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria'
to unusual locations across the UK.
Glasgow Women's Library is a fantastic first venue for the tour
because Artemisia is such a strong, female role model.
Artemisia is undoubtedly the most celebrated female artist of the 17th century.
She was born in Rome and her father Orazio Gentileschi was a well-established painter.
She learned the tricks of the trade from him and her style really begins from there.
It wasn't unusual for a woman to learn to paint
but it was unusual that Artemisia became so extraordinarily successful
and that she overcame so many difficulties and challenges in her life.
In 1611 Artemisia was raped by Agostino Tassi, a painter of reputation, of success
who was working with her father Orazio on a fresco commission.
The painter was put on trial and this trial is very well documented
and so we know a lot about the suffering that Artemisia went through.
In some ways the episode of the rape has sort of shaped or defined the way people speak about Artemisia.
But I think there were other events in her life that would have equally shaped her:
the loss of her mother when she was just 12,
the loss of four of her five children.
After the trial she was able to move away to Florence and that's where we really see her career kind of take off.
She sets up on her own.
She gains membership to the Artists' Academy in Florence.
She's the first woman to become a member there in 1616.
And she's heralded as one of the great artists of her generation.
What you feel is that she was such an immensely strong and determined woman
who absolutely would do her own thing.
"As long as I live I will have control over my being."
Our painting is 'Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria'.
It's a very beautiful painting.
There are beautiful colours and fabrics.
This painting was one of the most important recent acquisitions that the Gallery made.
It was part of a lengthy conservation treatment.
And we wanted to share it with people across Britain as widely as possible.
We are a gallery for the entire nation.
We wanted to send it to different locations.
To try and attract people who wouldn't normally walk into a museum or a gallery.
Working on this project is a whole team of basically all women.
From Press, to Exhibitions, to the curators.
And also we're very pleased that it's going to travel with a transport company
where women are also very much involved.
It's taken a lot of people to get it to where it is today.
So the painting is on the wall at Glasgow Women's Library
and we're really excited to see what the audiences think of it tomorrow.
We're absolutely thrilled that the Women's Library was chosen.
It's fitting because Glasgow Women's Library is the only Accredited Museum
dedicated to women's history in the whole of the UK.
I think I would define Artemisia Gentileschi as an inspirational woman.
Painting at a time when the odds were stacked against her.
Such is the power of this portrait that we've kind of convinced ourselves
that not only are we hosting the portrait but that Artemisia herself is with us.
Germaine Greer famously called Artemisia "the magnificent exception",
and it's not that Artemisia was the only woman artist in the 17th century,
but I think she was exceptional in some ways.
She is such a successful, professional woman at a time when that's quite difficult to do.
She ran a successful studio.
She raised her family.
She was feted in royal courts and large families across Europe for the power of her art.
She absolutely did what she wanted to do in the way she wanted to do it
and I just think she is so inspirational because of that.
I think Artemisia was quite fierce actually.
That gaze when she's looking out as Saint Catherine.
There's no messing with her.
There's a real strength in it.
There's a kind of quiet resilience in the way she looks out at you.
No nerves, absolutely bag full of courage, determination and grit.
Her story is 300 years old but, you know, it's still very relevant to the lives of women today.
I'm surprised to find her in Glasgow in a library.
It's based within housing estates and really makes it accessible to anyone.
It's quite cool that the Women's Library is the first stop in Scotland for her.
Her gaze says to me that she has suffered in her life.
I think you see her there with all her flaws.
Anger and injustice almost - you know, there's an emotion.
She's quite defiant. Really really badass.
There's almost a knowing glint in those eyes.
She appears to look determined but not defeated.
What she experienced in her life, she's trying to assert herself.
I just think the whole idea of the tour is absolutely amazing.
This picture, a picture that I am responsible for, that I sort of look after if you like,
is actually going out across the country and reaching people
who perhaps have never walked into a museum or gallery in their life.
Although it has been challenging and it's required us to think really differently
that's also what's been really exciting.
It's pushed all of us to work really differently, to create something that's really special.
I hope that Artemisia, as an artist but also this picture, somehow touches people.