Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating online lecture from London Art Week looking at the discovery of a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi in the Royal Collection. The talk brought together those involved in the rediscovery and experts on Artemisia to discuss how the painting was identified and why it is an important rediscovery. Niko Munz, Christchurch College Oxford, described how, while working as part of a project to catalogue and trace works owned by Charles I , he flicked through some files of royal pictures and found an old catalogue sheet from 1862 which had a dull photograph of the work linking the work to Charles and mentioning Artemesia. He then checked old inventories which showed it had hung in Henrietta Maria’s rooms and might have been part of a design to prompt the Catholic faith. Adelaide Izal, conservator for the Royal Collection, then took us though the historical and technical evidence from confirming that it did date from the period when Artemisia was in England, that it was painted i...

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery on the years Artemisia Gentileschi and her father Orazio spent in London working for the royal court. Desmond Shaw-Taylor, Keeper of the Queen’s Pictures, talked about Artemisia’s 2 years in London and Orazio’s turbulent 13 when he seemed to argue with lots of people. He looked at how their Italian style suited Henrietta Maria, who had known Italian art when she was being brought up at the French court and had an Italian mother, Marie de Medici. Her husband, Charles I, seemed to favour the more flamboyant Dutch and Flemish artists. He discussed how their work fitted with others in her collection which formed a cohesive style. She liked their sparse style with relatively few figures and a controlled palette as in Orazio’s “The Finding of Moses” as well as the added allusion to the senses eg in Artemisia’s “Self-Portrait as La Pittura” it is all about looking, she looks into the light and works on an unfinished picture to be lo...

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery putting Artemisia Gentileschi into the context of the feminist writing of the time. Mary Garrard, writer of numerous books on Artemisia, outlined the main feminist writers of the early 17th century, discussed whether Artemisia would have known these works and how they may be reflected in her art. Despite having studied this period I am ashamed to say I had not heard of any of these authors and there is so much now I want to follow up. Garrard set this discussion within the context of the misogyny of the Counter Reformation and a period of two strong female rules, Elizabeth I and Marie de Medici. I had never realised that Marie de Medici spent three years living with her daughter Henrietta Maria in England in the 1930s so was probably there when Artemisia was painting the Queen’s House ceiling with her father which had only female figures. I now really want to go round the exhibition again with these new ideas in mind. The talk ...

Lively online discussion from the National Gallery on Artemisia Gentileschi. I t brought together Michael Palin, who had done a documentary on her a few years ago, Alexandra Lapieere, who wrote a fictionalised biography and Letizia Treves, curator of the current exhibition to re-examine her life. Although this was generally ground that I had gone though a few times in lectures, it was interesting to hear different opinions from people very close to the subjects. I loved Palin’s quote on Artemisia as a personality that today “She’d have been on the Graham Norton Show”. Now that’s a programme I would watch! It did make me go an watch Palin’s programme, which the BBC has shown again recently. It was wonderful to see the story told in the buildings which she would have known and to illustrate points with scenes of life in Italy in modern times. It gave her a contemporary feel. Tv programme    

Excellent online lecture from Stella Grace-Lyons on Artemisia Gentileschi. I realise I’ve booked quite a number of talks on Artemisia! This is my second and I think there are two more to come. Stella took us clearly through Artemisia’s life and work with a few well-chosen images. I won’t go over the ground again, but she came up with two interesting facts I’d not heard before. Artemisia went to church at Santa Maria del Popola and her mother is buried there. It is also the church with Caravaggio’s “Crucifixion of St Peter” and “Conversion of St Paul” so, as well as Caravaggio being a friend of her father, she must have known every detail of these paintings from seeing them whenever she went to church. Fact two was that her father in law in Florence was a tailor who may well have lent her or acquired for her the lush and colourful clothes she paints.

Fabulous exhibition at the National Gallery looking at the life and work of Artemisia Gentileschi. I have so looked forward to this show. I discovered Artemisia when I spent time in Florence and read a couple of books about her and have hoped for a show of her work since then. I was already to go pre-lockdown but the exhibition was an early cancellation as it was proving difficult to get the works to the UK. I have to say it was worth the wait! Artemisia was a 17th century female artist who was well know in her day but fell out of favour and was virtually unknown until the 1970s. Her art is often overshadowed by her life story from the trial for her rape trail when she was 17, it was very moving to see the transcription of that trial in the exhibition, though to her independent life as a sought after artist and friend of contemporary intellectuals. However, this show puts her art centre stage. I found the earlier work most powerful and there were some wonderful juxtaposing of pi...

Excellent online talk from the National Gallery by Lietizia Treves, the curator of the current show at the gallery on Artemisia Gentileschi. I am so excited about the show and have a ticket to go next week, so it was   good to hear this talk before I went and it left me even more excited. Treves talked us though Artemisia’s artistic career emphasising that the show to let her   art take centre stage and not been overshadowed by her life story in particular the rape trail of 1611. Treves talked about how Artemisia travelled around Italy and to England and how that affected her style as well as how she used her own image to promote her work. She also looked at some new discoveries about pictures as a result of putting on this show such as demonstrating that some of the self-portraits as saints with martyr’s palms used a transfer to copy the composition. This was a fascinating hour’s talk and roll on next Wednesday when I hope to see it for real.  

Videoed play made available by the Barbican on the Trial of the 17 th century female artist Artemisia Gentileschi. Two of the things I have been most sad to miss during this Covid-19 lockdown have been the Artemisia exhibition at the National Gallery, which is hopefully being rescheduled, and this play which I was due to see at the Barbican. I’ve been an admirer of Artemisia’s work since reading a novel about her and of course seeing her work. I think her self-portrait in the Royal Collection is one of my favourite pictures. I was therefore delighted when an email popped up telling me about this videoed version of the play. Produced by Breach Theatre iot is largely based on the transcript of the trial of Agostino Tassi for breach of promise to marry Artemisia in the course of which she accuses him of rape. At its heart it is a classically, hopefully old fashioned, bad rape trail with witnesses brought to her bad character and the defendant allowed to cross examine her. It i...

Fascinating display at the National Gallery focusing on their new Artemisia Gentileschi self-portrait which they acquired in 2017 and is on show after extensive conservation work.    I’m a great Artemisia fan so was delighted to see this work which I had already read about. This picture was painted in Florence in about 1615. Show shows herself as St Catherine leaning on the wheel on which she was tortured which may be a reference to the treatment Artemisia suffered as part of the rape trial against one of her father’s friends. She shows herself as a resilient woman looking out at the viewer.   I loved the detail on the shawl over her shoulder. From March the picture will go on a pop-up tour of five unusual and unexpected venues, starting with Glasgow Women's Library on 6 March, in time for International Women's Day.

Interesting exhibition at Robilant and Voena looking at the art of Artemisia Gentileschi and its influence. This was a small show of two rooms which sadly didn’t include much by Gentileschi in fact there was only one and that was a new attribution. It was a full length portrait of a man in black, Antoine de Ville, and identified as a Gentileschi by her initials in the silver trinkets around his neck. It was a striking picture but I found the head a little small and not quite in keeping with the body. There was also a picture by Gentileschi’s daughter, Prudenzia, “Allegory of Rhetoric” possibly after a picture by her mother. It was a nice touch to hang it with a modern take on the work by Francesco Vezzoli. Other interesting works in a similar style included a Guido Cagnacci and a Luca Giordano. I also loved a nice Pompeo Batoni. Closes on 18 January 2019

Lovely evening at the National Gallery for members with a preview viewing of a new Sky Arts documentary on Artemisia Gentileschi followed by a discussion with the director, the assistant curator of the current Caravaggio exhibition and the art critic Jonathon Jones. The film is fantastic. It is done as a docu-drama with wonderful reactions of an artist’s life in the period and some of the pictures she painted. At times some of the language felt quite flowery but it turned out all the first person pieces were Artemisia’s own words from letters and her testimony in court. Alongside the drama were good interviews by art historians and descriptions of how her pictures reflected her life. Artemisia had difficult life having been raped by one of her tutors and a friend of her father. Her father brought the case to court and we have a transcript of the hearing but oddly not the verdict! The programme discussed how this may have influenced her art, with an emphasis on strong femal...