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拍品專文
Born in Rome, Artemisia Gentileschi, the eldest child of Orazio, became one of the greatest artists of the seventeenth century. Recognised in her lifetime for her abundant talent, her reputation as one of the most expressive and powerful female painters of any era has been consolidated over the course of more recent decades. After training with her father, and following the notorious trial of Agostino Tassi for her rape, Artemisia embarked on a storied and itinerant career, working in Florence, Rome, Venice and then Naples, and it is to this Neapolitan phase of her life that this picture belongs.
The subject of Bathsheba clearly found favour amongst Artemisia’s patrons, especially in Naples, given that this composition is known in several different versions, each with variants that explore its rich iconography. The story of Bathsheba is told in the Second Book of Samuel (II: 2-17): David, King of Israel, saw the beautiful Bathsheba bathing as he walked along the roof of his palace one evening. The wife of Uriah the Hittite, who was away from home serving in David’s army, Bathsheba was summoned to David's palace, where they slept together and she fell pregnant. Later, David arranged for Uriah to be sent to the front and killed in battle, after which, Bathsheba and David married. Their child died within days of being born, divine retribution for their sinful behaviour.
The present picture relates closely in composition to the canvas formerly owned by Baron Deichmann (sold, Sotheby’s, New York, 29 January 2020, lot 41), and comparison between the two is instructive: while the three principle figures are in the same positions – suggesting the possible use of a cartoon – the architectural backgrounds are different, and the colours of the drapery, together with their individual folds, vary. King David, absent from the ex-Deichmann picture, can be seen here leaning on the balustrade of the palace in the background. The standing attendant to the right of the canvas was given to Bernardo Cavallino, a friend and associate of Artemisia, by Nicolaci (in his entry for the 2012 exhibition catalogue), a view supported by Nicola Spinosa. This picture adds to the intriguing and complex question of Artemisia’s practice of collaborating with artists in Naples, where she resided from 1630 until 1638. It is possible too that another hand was responsible for the architectural background, although Riccardo Lattuada (Da Artemisia a Hackert, 2020) believes the whole canvas to be the work of Artemisia.
Of the other renditions of the subject by Artemisia, one is in the Museum of Art in Columbus, Ohio (fig. 1), which is thought to be the picture to which Bernardo De Dominici refers when he mentioned two pictures ‘con figure al naturale, che esprimono le storie di Betsabea e Susanna, che sembran di mano di Guido sono dipinti dalla famosa Artemisia Gentileschi, e l’architettura di Viviano, con gli albori dello Spadaro’ (Vite dei pittori, scultori ed architetti, 1742-1745, III, p. 199). However, it is also possible that De Dominici was referring to the present picture. Other treatments of the subject by Artemisia include works in the Neues Palais, Potsdam; the Galleria Palatina, Florence; a signed canvas in the Hass Collection, Vienna; and another recorded in the inventory of Charles I, which remains untraced.
The subject of Bathsheba clearly found favour amongst Artemisia’s patrons, especially in Naples, given that this composition is known in several different versions, each with variants that explore its rich iconography. The story of Bathsheba is told in the Second Book of Samuel (II: 2-17): David, King of Israel, saw the beautiful Bathsheba bathing as he walked along the roof of his palace one evening. The wife of Uriah the Hittite, who was away from home serving in David’s army, Bathsheba was summoned to David's palace, where they slept together and she fell pregnant. Later, David arranged for Uriah to be sent to the front and killed in battle, after which, Bathsheba and David married. Their child died within days of being born, divine retribution for their sinful behaviour.
The present picture relates closely in composition to the canvas formerly owned by Baron Deichmann (sold, Sotheby’s, New York, 29 January 2020, lot 41), and comparison between the two is instructive: while the three principle figures are in the same positions – suggesting the possible use of a cartoon – the architectural backgrounds are different, and the colours of the drapery, together with their individual folds, vary. King David, absent from the ex-Deichmann picture, can be seen here leaning on the balustrade of the palace in the background. The standing attendant to the right of the canvas was given to Bernardo Cavallino, a friend and associate of Artemisia, by Nicolaci (in his entry for the 2012 exhibition catalogue), a view supported by Nicola Spinosa. This picture adds to the intriguing and complex question of Artemisia’s practice of collaborating with artists in Naples, where she resided from 1630 until 1638. It is possible too that another hand was responsible for the architectural background, although Riccardo Lattuada (Da Artemisia a Hackert, 2020) believes the whole canvas to be the work of Artemisia.
Of the other renditions of the subject by Artemisia, one is in the Museum of Art in Columbus, Ohio (fig. 1), which is thought to be the picture to which Bernardo De Dominici refers when he mentioned two pictures ‘con figure al naturale, che esprimono le storie di Betsabea e Susanna, che sembran di mano di Guido sono dipinti dalla famosa Artemisia Gentileschi, e l’architettura di Viviano, con gli albori dello Spadaro’ (Vite dei pittori, scultori ed architetti, 1742-1745, III, p. 199). However, it is also possible that De Dominici was referring to the present picture. Other treatments of the subject by Artemisia include works in the Neues Palais, Potsdam; the Galleria Palatina, Florence; a signed canvas in the Hass Collection, Vienna; and another recorded in the inventory of Charles I, which remains untraced.