Orazio Gentileschi

Orazio Gentileschi (Pisa 1563 – 1639 London) Madonna and Child, or a Woman and Child, oil on canvas, 107 x 88 cm, framed Provenance: European private collection Literature: P. Carofano, Atti delle Giornate di Studi sul Caravaggismo e il Naturalismo nella Toscana del Seicento, a cura di P. Carofano, introduzione, San Casciano Val di Pesa 2009, pp. 7–9, fig. 2, p. 9.; C. Strinati, “Una Donna con Bambino di Orazio Gentileschi”, in: Valori tattili. Quesiti Caravaggeschi 1, 2011, p. 1117. We are grateful to Prof. Pierluigi Carofano and Prof. Claudio Strinati, who have independently confirmed the attribution of the present painting after examining it in the original. We also grateful to Prof. Raymond Ward Bissell, who has confirmed the attribution on the basis of a digital photograph. Carofano dates the present painting, to circa 1625-28, to the time when Orazio Gentileschi’’’’s was in London. He recognizes typical features of this period in the geometrical perfection of the forms and the choice of pale colours as well as the representation of sumptuous fabrics. In areas of the drapery of the Madonna’’’’s garment, in the turban, and in the countenance of the child, one can discern preparatory lines. According to Carofano, this is a technique commonly used by Gentileschi and this preparation is visible because the painting is most probably unfinished. According to Carofano the present work anticipates the composition that the artist executed in the years 1629-30, the Finding of Moses (Madrid, Museo del Prado); (see R. Ward Bissell, Orazio Gentileschi and the Poetic Tradition in Caravagesque painting, pp. 189-190, no. 62). However, there are significant differences between the figures in two works: the pose of the Infant Jesus is not the same; the figure of Moses appears in the reverse direction; and whereas the Madonna holds the cloth up with her left hand, the maiden in the Prado painting does not. It is thus a reworking with variations on a model. Strinati believes that the present work was executed around 1620 and therefore some time before the Prado’’’’s Finding of Moses (see C. Strinati, “Una ‘Donna con Bambino’’’’ di Orazio Gentileschi”, in Valori Tattili, 00, 2011, pp. 11-17). It is interesting to notice that the Virgin and Child exhibit almost the same relative proportions as the comparable figures in the Finding of Moses. That this composition by Orazio was used several times and varied was typical of the artist´s working manner,, as is seen for example in the Penitent Magdalene, the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, and Lot and His Daughters. Strinati, believes this recently discovered work to be an important addition to the reconstruction of Orazio Gentileschi’’’’s career. Strinati has also noticed that the painting is inherently secular in character, which can be seen, for example, in the parallels between the female figure of the maiden who is holding up the cloth in the Finding of Moses and the Virgin. The lack of a halo and the overall secular impression suggest a Woman and Child rather than a Madonna and Child. Strinati also stresses the significance of the present work for the understanding of the working process that Orazio employed to produce a picture. The painting, which is most probably unfinished, seems as if it were a legible map of strata that in different places clearly reveals the various working stages of the artist. Ward Bissell suggests a somewhat later dating for the present painting, setting it in the third decade of the 17th Century, towards 1629. His reasoning is based on the conviction that the almost exaggeratedly luxurious fabric is typical of the artist’’’’s English period. This late dating is, according to Ward Bissell, also justifiable through the comparison of the colours used for the Virgin and that of the woman with the raised arm in the Prado’’’’s Finding of Moses. It may also be possible, Bissell continues, that Orazio used a tracing to transfer the figure of the maiden in the Finding of Moses to that of the Virgin, as some of the smallest details are the same. Ward Bissell points out that the origin of the idea of a woman with a raised arm who is gazing at a reclining child can be traced to the idea of the Virgin adoring the Child, the composition of which for its part was derived from the Annunciation (Turin, Galleria Sabauda), painted by Orazio in 1623. Ward Bissell maintains that the energetic child and the motif of the cloth being held up, opening, has a famous precedent in the Madonna di Loreto by Raphael, which Orazio most likely saw in Rome and, according to a hypothesis of Bissell’’’’s, a copy of which might have been conserved in the collection of Charles I in London. Ward Bissell believes the Prado’’’’s Finding of Moses should also be dated to around 1629. The picture of the same subject matter, once in Castle Howard, Bissell believes was produced later in around 1633. This, formerly Castle Howard version was created after the first version was presented to Philip IV of Spain. The second version corresponded to the refined taste of Queen Henrietta Maria who had the painting installed at Queen’’’’s House in Greenwich. Based on these dates. Ward Bissell assigns the present Madonna and Child to around 1629. The dating of the present painting to the 1620s is entirely consistent with Orazio´s stylistic development as his oeuvre became increasingly refined and graceful during this period. The present composition displays this refined elegance which was entirely in keeping with the taste of his increasingly aristocratic and royal patrons. By 1623 Orazio was in Genoa working for the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel I; in 1626 he worked for Maria de’’’’ Medici in Paris. By November 1626 Orazio was in London, where he became court painter to Charles I and Henrietta Maria. His most ambitious work was the ceiling (1638/9, London Malborough House) for the Great Hall in the Queen´s House in Greenwich, designed by Inigo Jones, where he was assisted by his daughter Artemisia. This shows an Allegory of Peace and the Arts under the English Crown, a theme in keeping with the flattering courtly language of Inigo Jones´s masques. Orazio died in London without returning to Italy. We are grateful to Prof. Pierluigi Carofano for his contribution to this catalogue entry.

Orazio Gentileschi (Pisa 1563-1639 London) The Madonna and Child oil on panel 36 x 28¾ in. (91.4 x 73 cm.) in a 17th century carved and gilded Florentine frame Provenance Possibly Cardinal Giacomo Sannesi (1551-1621) and by inheritance to Anna Maria Sannesi, whose posthumous inventory of 1724 lists a Madonna and Child measuring 5 by 3 palmi (i.e. 111 x 67 cm.) on panel. with Matthiesen Fine Art, London, 1978-81, exhibited, Important Italian Baroque Paintings, 1600-1700, 1981, no. 2, from whom acquired by the present owner. Literature R. Ward Bissell, Orazio Gentileschi and the Poetic Tradition in Caravaggesque Painting, Pennsylvania, 1981, pp. 143-4, and 147, no. 12, fig. 23, as Orazio Gentileschi, circa 1605. M. Garrard, Artemisia Gentileschi: The Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art, Princeton, 1989, pp. 25-6, 32, and 493, notes 21 and 22, as Artemisia Gentileschi. R. Ward Bissell, Artemisia Gentileschi and the Authority of Art, Pennsylvania, 1999, pp. 326-7, no. X-18, and 333, as Orazio Gentileschi. A. Sutherland Harris, 'Artemisia and Orazio: Drawing Conclusions'. in Artemisia Gentileschi: Taking Stock, ed. J.W. Mann, Turnhout, 2005, pp. 138-9, fig. 7, as Artemisia Gentileschi. Exhibited Warsaw, Royal Castle and Vaduz, Liechtensteinische Staatliche Kunstsammlung, Opus Sacrum: catalogue of the Exhibition from the Collection of Barbara Piasecka Johnson, 10 April-23 September 1990, and 15 February-30 September 1991, no. 30 (catalogue entry by Józef Grabski). Rome, Museo del Palazzo di Venezia, Orazio e Artemisia Gentileschi, 15 October 2001-6 January 2002, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Saint Louis, Saint Louis Museum, Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi: Father and Daughter Painters in Baroque Italy, 14 February-12 May and 14 June-15 September 2002, no. 8 (catalogue entry by Keith Christiansen).