A powerful painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, depicting the torturing of Saint Catherine, is touring Britain. What did the women of Send Prison make of the chilling work?
Two women are chatting in front of a painting of Catherine of Alexandria, a saint martyred in the fourth century. The figure is shown leaning on a wheel studded with iron spikes, part of the instrument of her torture. “She’s my friend now,” says one of the women. “Strong lady,” says the other. “Like the girls where I’m from.” They move on to the subject of Catherine’s fate. “These martyrs aren’t martyrs like you and me,” says one. “I’m not dying for no cause,” adds her friend.
The women, who cannot be named, are inmates at HMP Send, a prison for high-risk female offenders in Surrey. The painting, by a woman who suffered appalling abuse and violence in 17th-century Italy, is hanging in the jail library. It was bought by the National Gallery for £3.6m last year and, as part of a tour of unlikely venues that has so far included a doctor’s surgery and a school, the gallery has sent it here.
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