Is there a new painting by Artemisia Gentileschi? Change of attribution for the Abraham with angels

There is a new Artemisia Gentileschi painting out there: it is actually a new attribution, because the work does not represent a new discovery. The painting in question, Abraham and Three Angels, appeared on the market in 2014 in Paris, assigned at the time to Bernardo Cavallino, and now it is back for sale, in an auction at the Viennese house Dorotheum where it is presented precisely as a painting by Orazio Gentileschi’s daughter, and where it will be sold on May 3. But it was also known previously: it is in fact also registered at the Zeri Photo Library, with attribution to the 17th-century Neapolitan painter Giuseppe Marullo. The new attribution is due to scholar Giuseppe Porzio, who curated, together with Antonio Ernesto Denunzio, the recent exhibition on Artemisia’s Neapolitan period, and was confirmed by Maria Cristina Terzaghi on a photographic basis.

According to Porzio, the painting belongs to Artemisia Gentileschi’s artistic production of her second Neapolitan period and can be dated, in his opinion, to the mid-1740s. This was a period of wide commercial success for Artemisia, who in order to meet the demand from her large clientele found herself having to organize a well-established workshop in which many young and highly skilled painters were employed. Among these artists were the aforementioned Bernardo Cavallino and, above all, Onofrio Palumbo (or Palomba) who is remembered and documented as an artist who often worked alongside the master. As he did also in the case of this painting (the work is in fact proposed as a work executed by four hands by Artemisia and Onofrio).

The close practice of collaborative study that characterizes Artemisia’s entire Neapolitan production sometimes leads to stylistic inconsistencies, despite a clearly recognizable general style and choice of subject. Separating the hand of the “master” from that of his assistants is therefore a very complex task, and the same is true for the painting in question, although Porzio felt that he could detect Artemisia’s hand in it, which he found in the physical types of the angels, the pictorial calligraphy, the palette, and the iridescent drapery, all of which would recall the female figures in Lot and his daughters by Artemisia from the Apostolic Nunciature in Madrid.

In addition, Porzio also calls into question a payment made to Artemisia in December 1645 for “uno quatro d’Abramo di palmi cinque e quattro,” as yet unidentified. The auction house suggests that the payment may refer to this painting (although the subject is referred to very vaguely, and the measurements given do not appear compatible with those of the painting in question).

The painting will pass with an estimate of between 150 and 200 thousand euros, a significantly lower figure than Artemisia’s paintings of higher quality, such as the Lucrezia sold by Artcurial in 2019, which was offered with an estimate of between 600 and 800 thousand euros, and was sold for a record price of 4.7 million. Estimates of Artemisia’s works rarely fall below 200 thousand: the lower than usual figure is due to the fact that the work is presented as having been executed with the help of Onofrio Palumbo.

Image: Artemisia Gentileschi and Onofrio Palumbo?, Abraham and Three Angels (1740s; oil on canvas, 144.5 x 200.8 cm)

Is there a new painting by Artemisia Gentileschi? Change of attribution for the Abraham with angels

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