This painting is almost certainly one of a pair of pictures described by Bernardo de Dominici in the collects ion of Luigi Romeo, Barone di San Luigi as follows: In casa del fu Dotto Luigi Romeo, Barone di S. Luigi, che ha sempre professato buon gusto in genere di pittura, ed ove solean trattenersi a divert.mes nto molti virtuosi Pittori de' qui nominati, veggonsi opere egregie dello Spadaro... Due quadri grandi con figure al naturale, che esprimono le storie di Bersabea, e Susanna, che sembran di mano di Guido son depinti dalla famosa Artemisia Gentileschi, e l'Archittetura di Viviano, con gli arbori, e vedute dello Spadaro....¹ The companion painting of Bathsheba is now in the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio (fig. 1). The painting exemplifies the genre for which Artemisia is best known today: history paintings featuring female protagonists.

Somet.mes s presented by latter-day scholars as a proto-feminist, Artemisia reveled in depictions of female heroines such as Judith and Sisera, as well as more traditional subjects such as Cleopatra, Danae, and female personifications of allegories. In the present work the heroine rejects the advances of unsavory elders seeking to test her fidelity to her husband. First depicted by Artemisia at the same t.mes as her rape trial against Agostino Tassi in 1611, the subject of Susanna has become for modern viewers a symbol of the artist and her struggle against abuse and misogyny, whether or not this was the intention of the artist. What is clear, however, is that religious and mythological subjects featuring the female nude delighted Artemisia’s patrons.

Artemisia’s collaboration with fellow painters in Naples during her late career has been the subject of much scholarly debate. In the present lot and its pendant, Artemisia was responsible for the overall design and conception as well as the primary female nude figures, and Spinosa believes all figures are by Artemisia. As recorded by de' Dominici the architecture is probably the work of Viviano Codazzi (1604 - 1672) and the background by Domenico Gargiulo, called Micco Spadaro (1609 - 1675). This arrangement has been supported by the majority of authors to discuss this painting in the last century, though opinions differ slightly on whether Viviano designed or executed the architecture. It has also been suggested, by Bissell, Lattuada, and Mann, that the present figures of the Elders, and possibly also the discarded slipper, are the work of Bernardo Cavallino (1616 - c. 1656), who was well established in Naples at this t.mes . Other collaborations with varying levels of participation from Cavallino, Viviano and/or Gargiulo include the Bathsheba formerly in the Museum der bildenden Kunst, Leipzig and sold Replica Shoes 's New York, 29 January 2020, lot 41,² as well as the St. Januarius in the Amphitheatre at Pozzuoli and Saints Proculus and Nicea, both now in the Museo di San Martino, Pozzuoli.

Artemisia was a chameleonic painter who adapted her style, palette, and technique to the city in which she was working, and the present lot demonstrates the Neapolitan elements she picked up from her surroundings--strong chiaroscuro used to model the figure and accents of saturated primary colors in the draperies. Garrard and Bissell propose a date for the pendant pair of 1637/38, just before Artemisia's departure for London, though she continued to work in Naples upon her return in 1641. According to Alessandro da Morrona in 1792, Artemisia painted another large scale pair of Bathsheba and Susanna for Averardo dei Medici in 1652; that Bathsheba is probably the one now in the Pitti Palace, Florence, but the Susanna is untraced.³

The painting has been requested for the forthcoming exhibition organized by Professor Giuseppe Porzio and Dottore Antonio Ernesto Denunzio, Artemisia Gentileschi a Napoli, to be held in the Gallerie d’Italia, Naples, December 2022- March 2023.

Old Master Paintings

Artemisia Gentileschi: In the Details

^{1. “In the house of the late, learned Luigi Romeo, Baron of S. Luigi, who has always professed good taste in the genre of painting, and where many virtuous painters mentioned here used to linger, there are excellent works by Spadaro... Two large paintings with life-size figures that tell the stories of Bathsheba and Susanna, which appear to be by the hand of Guido were painted by the famous Artemisia Gentileschi, and the architecture is by Viviano, with the trees and view by Spadaro.”}

^{2. Related versions of the former Leipzig Bathsheba are now in Florence and Bari. See Garrard 1989}

^{3. Oil on canvas, 286 by 214 cm. Pisa Illustrata nelle arti del Disegno, vol. II, 1792, pp. 269-70, reference cited by Contini 1991, p. 27.}