The very strange tour of Artemisia Gentileschi's St. Catherine: displayed in a hospital, a school, a prison

The National Gallery in London calls them “visits to unusual and unexpected venues”: this is the strange tour to which the London museum is subjecting Artemisia Gentileschi ’s (Rome, 1593 - Naples, 1654)Self-Portrait as St. Catherine of Alexandria, the painting purchased last year by the institution and the subject of now increasingly frequent attention (it will be the big star of the Artemisia exhibition to be held in 2020). Now, however, the National Gallery is sending the work on a tour bordering on the absurd: which started on March 6 from a library (the Glasgow Womens’ Library), at the moment it has already made stops at a surgical clinic near York (where it was hung in a waiting room) and at a high school in Newcastle: the last two stops on the tour are a women’s prison near Woking and another library, in London, where the painting is scheduled to be displayed in the coming days.

For the National Gallery, this is a way of giving art back to the public. “The National Gallery,” explained director Gabriele Finaldi before the tour set off, "purchased Artemisia Gentileschi’sSelf-Portrait last year, and now the work belongs to everyone. The Artemisia Visits tour... takes this superb painting to a series of significant and unusual exhibition venues across the country so that it can be seen by people who might not have the faculty to go to see it in Trafalgar Square." Finaldi was echoed by Letizia Treves, curator of the Italian, Spanish, and French seventeenth-century painting sections at the National Gallery: “I am thrilled to have played a role in the acquisition of Artemisia Gentileschi’s self-portrait, and now, after its restoration and a brief exhibition in London, I am delighted that this important painting will be seen by people who would not normally have the opportunity to see it at the National Gallery.”

A tour of everyday places, in short. A good idea, or a stretch? The debate is open.

Pictured is a detail of Artemisia Gentileschi’s Saint Catherine of Alexandria.

The very strange tour of Artemisia Gentileschi's St. Catherine: displayed in a hospital, a school, a prison

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