Artemisia at the National Gallery

Waldemar takes a look at the powerful artworks of Artemisia Gentileschi in the exhibition at the National Gallery.

Hello and wellcome to he
Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition

at the National Gallery

Artemisia was one of the greatest
of all baroque artists

but she was also a woman
and that of course made her special

in interesting ways.

I mean, she wasn't
the first woman artist in western art

but she was the first
who imbued all her work

with a sense of her femininity.

It makes her work powerful,
it makes it pioneering

and it certainly makes it exciting.

As you come through the door,
the first picture you see,

kind of slaps you around
the face really is this,

and it shows this famous biblical story
of Susanna and the elders.

Susanna was a hebrew wife

who was lusted over by a couple
of old men in the village.

and they watched her while she was bathing

and tried to force her
to have sex with them.

She refused and they took her to court.

They lost the case, she won the case.

So, it's a kind of feminist story,
if you like.

But Artemisia has made something
so creepy out of it.

Lots of baroque artists painted
Susanna and the elders

but never with this intimate sense
of the blokes crushing into her space,

leaning right over
into her confidence zone.

But the really extraordinary thing here

is that when she painted this
she was probably 16 at most 17.

Now, this show ahead of us tells us
an awful lot of things

about Artemisia Gentileschi.

But one of the first things it says
is that she was a prodigy.

She could paint better earlier

than just about anybody else
in western art.

When Artemisia was 17,

she was raped by a friend
of her father's,

another painter called Agostino Tassi

and this rape was to have
a powerful impact on her life, of course

and it was a very infamous court case
that resulted from it.

And one of the things
they've got here

is an actual transcript of the court
proceedings.

And what's wonderful about it,
is that you can hear Artemisia's voice,

the things she said, the way she spoke.

Sometimes they tortured her
to make sure she was telling the truth

but she always came back
with these snappy reposts,

these witty answers

and she emerges in this show
as someone who wasn't just a tragic victim

but was a really rounded
and interesting figure.

This is probably Artemisia's
most famous image,

so famous she did it twice

and fortunately the National Gallery

managed to get
both versions up at once.

It's "Judith beheading Holofernes".

That Judith was a jewish heroine
who fought back against Holofernes

and beheaded him.

So, a very feminine subject

and a subject which,
because of Artemisia's rape

felt particularly personal.

But what i like is the way
the two pictures are subtly different.

I mean, they're both gory

because one of the great lessons
of Caravaggio

was that violence is something
that makes people look at art.

It's a bit like Sam Peckinpah movies
in the 80s and 90s.

You know, violence is just something
that shakes you out of your everyday rythm

and makes you notice things.

What's wonderful
is the actual detail here.

Look at this gigantic sword
that she's wielding

as she cuts off the poor guy's head.

And here there's just
a little bit of blood

pouring out of him, it's savage,

but it's not quite a gore fest.

By the time she does this,
the second version,

wow, look at the blood there.

It's pouring out like water
from a baroque fountain.

What a piece of drama that is.

Now, the National Gallery
didn't own any Artemisia Gentileschi

still a couple of years ago
when, very fortunately,

they managed to buy
this masterpiece by her.

And this is Saint Catherine
who was tortured

with a horrible wooden wheel
with spikes in it

that was turned over her,

but also it's a self-portrait
of Artemisia.

So, as Artemisia as Saint Catherine

identifying fiercely with her.

And this is Artemisia as Saint Cecilia.

There's another early christian martyr

who was tortured for her beliefs

and who became the patron saint of music.

That's why she's strumming away there.

Look at that look on her face,

it's very accusatory, isn't it?

Sort of picks you out and seems somehow
to make you feel a bit guilty.

It's self-portraiture but self-portraiture
with these bigger ambitions,

I think, to somehow reach across the ages

and identify with these
sad martyred figures

of young women
from the early christian days.

Now this room here shows the work
that she started to paint

when she moved back to Rome
in the 1620s

and it's particularly clear here

that everywhere she went,
everytime she moved on,

her art changed a bit.

I mean, this too
is Susanna and the Elders.

So, it's that first subject in the show

the creepy guys staring
at the naked woman

but here it feels less antagonistic,
it's calmed down

It seems to be more
about the beauty of the flesh

and even the blokes don't look
quite as horrible as they do

in that wonderful picture
that she painted when she was 16.

So, there's an attempt here, I think,

to become a slightly
more respectable Artemisia.

So, it's important to remember
that she wasn't this feminist heroin

beheading men all the way
through her career.

She had these phases
and the show judges beautifully, I think.

The development from one phase to another.

Although the show
is basically chronological

and takes us through all
the main periods of Artemisia's career

it loses that chronology at the end

and with a bit of sneaky exhibition making

it fast forwards
through the neapolitan years

and brings us straight to the time
that Artemisia spent in England,

because yes she came to England,

in 1638, just before the civil war.

She arrived here and worked

on various decorative schemes
with her father Orazio

and what I really like here

is that this famous painting
was also painted in England

and it's one of her most famous images:

Artemisia Gentileschi,
embodying art,

art itself,symbolically.

A lot of people have always said,
it's a self-portrait,

Indeed, it's called a self-portrait,

but we've seen the other self-portraits
in the show

and it's clear that isn't her.

So, this isn't a literal self-portrait

it's a symbolic self-portrait of her,

her presence, of what art
can be in the world

and because she's working
with one figure,

it's got that intensity about it again.

So, it's a fantastic ending
to a fantastic show.