‘Breakthrough’ attribution for Artemisia Gentileschi painting stored at England’s Hampton Court

Curators on the Royal Assortment, UK, have attributed a portray to the Seventeenth-century Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi, increasing the artwork historic canon of arguably Europe’s best feminine Outdated Grasp. The work, Susanna and the Elders, is believed to have been commissioned by Henrietta Maria, the spouse of King Charles I (who dominated from 1629 to 1640), and throws mild on the artist’s time in London within the late 1630s. The portray depicts the Biblical story of Susanna who’s shocked by two males whereas bathing in her backyard.

A Royal Assortment assertion says: “Analysis allowed curators to match the outline of Susanna and the Elders to a portray that had been in retailer at Hampton Court docket Palace for over 100 years, attributed to ‘French Faculty’ and in very poor situation. A ‘CR’ (‘Carolus Rex’) model has subsequently been discovered on the again of the canvas throughout conservation remedy, confirming that the portray was as soon as in Charles I’s assortment.”

The newly attributed work was found by curators on the Royal Assortment Belief as a part of a analysis venture led by the artwork historian Niko Munz targeted on tracing work scattered throughout Europe after Charles I’s execution in 1649.

Munz says in a press release: “One of the vital thrilling components of this portray’s story is that it seems to have been commissioned by Queen Henrietta Maria whereas her residences have been being redecorated for a royal beginning. Susanna first hung above a brand new hearth, in all probability put in concurrently the portray, emblazoned with Henrietta Maria’s private cipher ‘HMR’ (‘Henrietta Maria Regina’). It was very a lot the Queen’s portray.”

The portray was returned to Charles II shortly after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 and was later hung above a hearth in Somerset Home, London. It was then moved to Kensington Palace, later transferring to Hampton Court docket Palace, house of Henry VIII, the place it was recorded in 1862 as being “in a nasty state”.

Sheila Barker, Caravaggio professional and govt director of the Philadelphia-based artwork faculty, Studio Incamminati, tells The Artwork Newspaper: “The attribution is unassailable. Niko Munz and the Royal Assortment’s curators cross-checked a lot of completely different sorts of proof, together with stock descriptions, provenance data, and the collector’s mark on the portray, along with making stylistic comparisons. They even carried out a cloth evaluation that detected the presence of one among Artemisia’s most well-liked pigments: lead tin antimony yellow.”

This discovery is an actual breakthrough for a number of causes, Barker provides. “First, we all know it should have carried out in 1639 and accomplished no later than early 1640, by when she had departed England. This slim window for the portray’s execution is beneficial as a result of solely a really small proportion of her works could be dated with any certainty. Second, as a result of she travelled to England alone, the work she carried on the market are unadulterated by the palms of her main studio assistants or collaborators, thus furnishing a purer indication of her model. The Royal Assortment Susanna is due to this fact a agency landmark by which to chart her stylistic modifications within the 1630s and 1640s.”

The Lebanese artwork historian Gregory Buchakjian says: “Each new discovery is gold for students—it’s a bit to be added to an edifice that may by no means be solely full. Essentially the most Gentileschiesque options within the Hampton Court docket Susanna are the face of the feminine hero that reminds [us of] Artemisia’s Self Portrait as a Lute Participant (1615-17) and Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (1615-17).”

This new addition to Artemisia’s Susanna work additionally brings to the fore male figures in her work, which might be much less studied, extra heterogeneous and infrequently executed by collaborators, provides Buchakjian.

The newly attributed Gentileschi portray, which has undergone in depth restoration, has gone on show as a part of a brand new non permanent exhibition within the Queen’s Drawing Room in Windsor Fort alongside Self-Portrait because the Allegory of Portray (‘La Pittura’, 1638-39), additionally by Gentileschi, and Joseph and Potiphar’s Spouse (round 1630-32) by her father Orazio Gentileschi.

The reattribution displays the surge in curiosity within the Seventeenth-century artist on each the institutional and business fronts. Final yr the organisers of an exhibition exploring Gentileschi’s time in Naples attributed 4 works to the artist, fuelling debate round her follow and improvements.