01 work, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Possibly Caterina Savelli, Principessa di Albano, with Footnotes. #175

Artemisia Gentileschi, Rome 1593 - after 1654 Naples

Portrait of a seated lady, possibly Caterina Savelli, Principessa di Albano

Oil on canvas

51 1/4 by 38 5/8 in.; 130.2 by 98.1 cm. 

Private collection

Caterina Savelli, born in Rome to Paolo Savelli, 1st Prince of Albano, and to Caterina Savelli , Lady of Ariccia .

She first married Pietro Aldobrandini , Duke of Carpineto, of whom she was married from a young age until his death in 1621 with whom she had two daughters.

With the second marriage on 4 October 1633 he married Scipione Spinelli becoming princess of Cariati and to whom she bore nine children.

In 1638 as feudal lord of Verzino ( KR ) she gave the locality Scalzaporri to the peasants displaced by the earthquake, coming above all from the towns of Carpanzano and Scigliano in the Cosenza area. The town that was born was called Savelli in honor of the benefactress, moreover, always in Savelli a street of the town is dedicated in honor of her. He died in Naples in 1692 at the age of 84. More on Caterina Savelli

Artemisia Gentileschi was celebrated by her contemporaries as a painter of portraits. Only a few of these have survived, however, and this depiction of an elegant and beautiful young woman must rank amongst her very best examples in the genre. 

The sitter, who appears to be in her late 20s or early 30s, is resplendently dressed in a black, somewhat conservatively styled, dress, which has nevertheless been elaborately embroidered with gold thread. She is seated in a large chair and turns three quarters to her right, her profile and head reflected in the shimmer of the gold finial that adorns the top of her chair. 

A compelling clue as to the sitter in this portrait is provided by the correspondence of the artist.  In a letter of 5th of March, 1620, Artemisia Gentileschi, having arrived in Rome from Florence only a few weeks before, wrote to Francesco Maria Maringhi, her lover and confidant, that she was already busy at work painting a portrait of the “Principessa di Albano”. More on this painting

Artemisia Gentileschi; (July 8, 1593 – c. 1656) was an Italian Baroque painter, today considered one of the most accomplished painters in the generation following that of Caravaggio. In an era when women painters were not easily accepted by the artistic community or patrons, she was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence.

 

She painted many pictures of strong and suffering women from myth and the Bible – victims, suicides, warriors.

 

Her best-known work is Judith Slaying Holofernes (a well-known medieval and baroque subject in art), which "shows the decapitation of Holofernes, a scene of horrific struggle and blood-letting". That she was a woman painting in the seventeenth century and that she was raped and participated in prosecuting the rapist, long overshadowed her achievements as an artist. For many years she was regarded as a curiosity. Today she is regarded as one of the most progressive and expressionist painters of her generation. More on Artemisia Gentileschi

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