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A Britain offset: Artemisia Gentileschi at the National Gallery

The National Gallery'due south exhibition Artemisia was one of the long-awaited shows of 2020 and no postponement or intermission dampened the well-deserved excitement that built effectually it.  The London institution's significant conquering in 2018 of Artemisia Gentileschi's (1593–1654) Self-portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (fig. 1), and the lack of a monographic exhibition devoted to her in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, contributed to print on curator Letizia Treves the necessity for one such endeavour. The bear witness featured thirty-six paintings covering the full span of Gentileschi's peripatetic career and including many of her all-time-known and best-preserved works [i].

Forming a diverse group within her oeuvre, Artemisia's self-portraits blurred the boundary between self-promotion and artistic do, and her insertion in many of her paintings was noted by her contemporaries, who would accept appreciated both her wit and her business-acumen. This inspired me to focus here on images of Artemisia, either past herself or by others, to consider their significance both inside and across the span of her career.

A Roman artist

Born in Rome, Artemisia's merely teacher was her father, the celebrated painter Orazio Gentileschi (1563–1639). Every bit a adult female she was not immune to leave her home unsupervised and wander freely around the street, churches and palaces of the Holy Metropolis (she was also responsible for her 3 younger brothers). In spite of these limitations, Artemisia Gentileschi quickly adult into a competent painter, so skilled to inspire her father'south pride. Her earliest signed and dated work, the Suzanna and the Elders (Schloss Weißenstein), made when she was 17 years old, is an accomplished and original retelling of the familiar moral tale, from a female perspective.

The course of her life was drastically diverted when i of father's associates, the well-connected painter Agostino Tassi, raped the young Artemisia, subsequently promising to marry her. A hope he bankrupt, leading to Orazio pressing charges against Tassi. The trial that followed was a public affair and resulted in Tassi's sentencing to exile – a punishment that was never enforced. Soon subsequently the trial information technology was Artemisia who left her native city in search of a fresh beginning, having married Pierantonio Stiattesi, a small Florentine painter.

Florence 1613-1620

In Florence, Gentileschi becomes the first female member of the prestigious Accademia del Disegno. Probably soon subsequently her arrival she executed her first known self-portrait, fashioning herself equally a female martyr (fig. 2). The motif of the textile loosely wrapped around the figure'due south head helps to characterize the protagonist equally a historical grapheme while likewise relating to Artemisia's own involvement with theatrical apparel-up: she is said to accept performed the function of a gypsy.

In her at present famous self-portrait in the guise of the fourth-century Christian martyr, Saint Catherine of Alexandria (see fig. 1), she continued to play with cocky-fashioning and to blur the boundary between self-portraiture and historical depiction, past combining Catherine's crown with the piece of fabric loosely wrapped around her head by style of a signature. Legend describes Saint Catherine as a philosopher and daughter of a prince of Egypt, who was tortured on the spiked bicycle for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. Her martyrdom is symbolized by the palm branch she holds in her right hand.

1 of the highlights of the show was the opportunity to run into Artemisia'southward four Florentine self-portraits in a glorious line-up. Technical analysis recently carried out past the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, Florence, has shown that the National Gallery and Uffizi (fig. iii) versions of Saint Catherine are based on the same preparatory cartoon or cartoon, and that this also constituted the starting point for the striking Cocky-portrait as a Lute Player in Hartford (fig. four).

Back in Rome: Artemisia'south paw

Despite the need for her paintings in Florence and her attempts to be seen equally an artist of Tuscan lineage (she adopted the surname Lomi, later her paternal granddad, a goldsmith), Artemisia was forced back to Rome by financial hardship. She also lost three of her 5 children. Condolement came, at least in role, from her love thing with the Florentine nobleman Francesco Maria Maringhi. The discovery in 2011, in the Archivio Storico Frescobaldi in Florence, of a grouping of messages written by Artemisia and her husband to Maringhi, reveals him every bit not only her lover, but likewise a confidant, intermediary and financial supporter for the rest of her life (the two met in Florence when they were both 24 years quondam).

Back in Rome from early on 1620, Artemisia's success grew. She became a sought-after portraitist and continue to develop her unique brand of Caravaggism. Together with the attention of patrons, the artistic community'south fascination with Artemisia as woman and artist developed, as attested by the many depictions of her likeness in paintings, drawings, prints and medals. Her contemporaries may accept been aware of the misadventures of her youth simply did non mention them. There was then much more than nigh Artemisia deserving of praise: her wit, her talent, her beauty.

Simon Vouet's painting of circa 1623-26 (fig. v) portrays her as both elegant and committed to her trade, with a palette and castor in her left hand and a toccalapis (chalk holder) in her right. The prominently displayed gold medallion features a mausoleum, a witty play on words used to identify the illustrious sitter by referring to her namesake, Artemisia of Halicarnassus (d. 350 BC), who built the famous Mausolus, one of the wonders of the ancient globe.

Not far from Vouet'southward large portrait, visitors to the exhibition would encounter a chalk cartoon by Pierre Dumonstier Two, who, like Vouet, met Artemisia in Rome. This is a symbolic portrait of the creative person, as it shows Artemisia's right hand elegantly holding a brush (fig. vi). The inscription on the verso of the sail translates as 'The easily of Aurora are praised and renowned for their rare beauty. But this one is a thousand times more worthy for knowing how to make marvels that send the nearly judicious eyes into raptures.'

Venice, Naples, London: The spirit of Caesar in the soul of a woman

Her notoriety was not plenty to guarantee Artemisia's life in Rome. Instead, after a brief stint in Venice where she painted her majestic Esther before Ahasuerus (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), she would be based in Naples for the rest of her life while constantly seeking the elusive support of foreign noble patrons.

Her brusque withal important sojourn in London in the late 1630s was historic in the last room of the National Gallery'southward display. In London, she had the chance to reunite with her father and briefly collaborate with him on his concluding large commission, the ceiling paintings of the Queen'southward House, in Greenwich (at present at Marlborough Business firm in London).

It was probably during her stay in London that Gentileschi painted one of her well-nigh iconic works, the Self-portrait equally Pittura (fig. 7), "the quintessential Baroque version of the Allegory of Painting" [1]. It is based simply in part on Cesare Ripa'southward description in the Iconologia (fig. viii), annotation the gold chain with a pendant mask which stands for imitation, and the unruly locks of night hair which signify the frenzy of the artistic temperament. Past then in her 40s, Artemisia imbued her allegorical self-portrait with the qualities she considered vital to her art: her Pittura is an energetic maker, not a static symbol.

Despite achieving fame and recognition in her lifetime, Artemisia was long disregarded until her 'rediscovery' initiated by feminist fine art scholars in the 1970s. Experts have long grappled with the relationship between her personal experiences and the content of her paintings – ofttimes focusing on resolute female heroines. By focusing on her oeuvre through particularly outstanding examples, the National Gallery'south testify succeeded in shifting our attending towards her skills and talents as a Baroque artist, without losing sight of her unique story and struggles.

Edifice on the momentum of the London show the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford has announced its get-go exhibition solely dedicated to Italian women artists, entitled Past Her Hand: Artemisia Gentileschi and Women Artists in Italy, 1500–1800 (September 30, 2021 – January 9, 2022).

Explore related themes: Women artists, Allegories of the arts

Note

[i] Exhibition catalogue,Artemisia, National Gallery, London, 2020, ed. Letizia Treves.

[ii] Mary D. Garrard, 'Artemisia Gentileschi's Self-Portrait as the Apologue of Painting', The Art Message, vol. 62, no. 1, 1980, p. 106.

Fig. 1 Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1615-17, oil on canvas, 71.4 × 69 cm, National Gallery, London

Fig. 2 Artemisia Gentileschi, Cocky-portrait as a female martyr, c. 1615, oil on canvas, 32 x 24.vii cm, private collection

Fig. iii Artemisia Gentileschi, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, c. 1615-17, oil on canvas, 77 ten 62 cm, Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Fig. four Artemisia Gentileschi, Cocky-portrait as a Lute Thespian, 1615-17, oil on canvass, thirty x 28 cm, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut

Fig. 5 Simon Vouet, Portrait of Artemisia Gentileschi, c. 1623-25, oil on sheet, 90 × 71 cm, Palazzo Blu, Pisa

Fig. 6 Pierre Dumonstier Ii, Right hand of Artemisia Gentileschi holding a brush, 1625, black and red chalk, 219 ten 180 mm, British Museum, London, inv. no. Nn,7.51.3

Fig. 7 Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-portrait as the Apologue of Painting (La Pittura), most 1638-9, oil on canvas, 98.half-dozen x 75.2 cm, Purple Drove Trust / HM The Queen, inv. no. RCIN

Fig. 8 La Pittura, from Cesare Ripa, Iconologia, ed. 1603

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