''Madonna and Child'' is an early painting by the baroque painter
Artemisia Gentileschi
Artemisia Lomi or Artemisia Gentileschi (, ; 8 July 1593) was an Italian Baroque painter. Gentileschi is considered among the most accomplished seventeenth-century artists, initially working in the style of Caravaggio. She was producing profess ...
. It was painted around 1613, when Artemisia was around 20 years old. It currently hangs in the Galleria Spada in Rome.
Description
The Virgin Mary is depicted wearing a pink dress sitting on a plain wooden chair, about to nurse her son, as he turns and caresses her face with his left hand. Mary's figure fills the canvas, bringing her close to the viewer, while the Christ child with tousled blonde hair appears to have been modeled on that of a real child.
History
An 1837 engraving of the painting indicates a more complicated arrangement of drapery than is now in evidence.
A restoration which took place during 1969-1970 removed a significant amount of retouching and overpaint, which revealed the pink dress with deep maroon shadows as well as the blue mantle.
Attribution
The painting had been attributed to a series of Italian artists until 1992, when archival research uncovered an inventory record from 1637 which brought its history to light. The question of attribution was complicated by the existence of an identically sized ''Madonna and Child'' in
Palazzo Pitti
The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...
.
The Spada painting however was judged to be "more assured" than the Pitti depiction.
Scholars long believed that the Pitti painting was the work of Artemisia, given the depiction of the Madonna as more conventionally beautiful than the Spada painting, which Mary Garrard attributes to historic
gender bias
Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primaril ...
.
Provenance
An archival document discovered in 1992 records the transfer of art works from Alessandro Biffi to the Veralli family, one member of which, Marchesa Maria Veralli, married Orazio Spada.
That transaction also included
Saint Cecilia playing the Lute, also by Artemisia.
See also
*
List of works by Artemisia Gentileschi
The following is an incomplete list of works by Artemisia Gentileschi. Catalogue numbers abbreviated "WB" are taken from the 1999 publication by Raymond Ward Bissell
Raymond Ward Bissell, Jr. (October 23, 1936 – October 26, 2019) was an Ameri ...
References
{{Artemisia Gentileschi
Paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi
1610s paintings
Paintings in the Galleria Spada
Paintings of the Madonna and Child