| Portrait of a Woman as Judith | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Agostino Carracci |
| Year | c. 1590-1595 |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 122.5 cm× 88 cm(48.2 in× 35 in) |
| Location | Private collection |
Portrait of a Woman as Judith is an oil on canvas painting by Agostino Carracci, from c. 1590-1595, now in a private collection. It is signed A. CAR. BON. (Agostino Carracci from Bologna) at bottom left. [1]
The work was lost until re-appearing on the art market in 1985 thanks to a re-reading of its iconography by Australian art historian Jaynie Anderson identifying its subject as Olimpia Luna (died 1592) as the biblical figure Judith, with Holofernes' head modelled on her husband Melchiorre Zoppio (1544 – 1634), co-founder of the Accademia dei Gelati in Bologna, an association of writers, poets and scholars of which Agostino was probably a member.
Anderson drew on several documentary sources, particularly the oration at Agostino's funeral in January 1603 (about a year after his death) by Lucio Faberi (or Faberio), notary of the Company of Painters in Bologna, [2] as quoted by Carlo Cesare Malvasia in his chapter on the funeral in Felsina Pittrice (1678). This states it was painted after Olimpia's death, with Faberi stating "if it is a great deed to paint a portrait from nature, how much greater a deed it is to do the same when the subject is absent; it is certainly most great and marvellous to do such a thing, painting a person already dead, buried, unseen, without a drawing or imprint, but solely and simply from others' accounts ... As her husband relates [Agostino Carracci] made the portrait of [Zoppo's] wife Olimpia Luna, who was wife to the Most Excellent Melchiorre Zoppio". He goes on to add that Zoppio himself stated that he particularly appreciated the painting and dedicated a sonnet to it, which Faberi quoted in its entirety in his oration.
Elsewhere in Felsina Pittrice Malvasia states that Agostino "made [for Zoppio] the portrait of his wife, already dead and buried, from [Zoppio's] memory, with a small portrait of himself in her hand", which Anderson identifies with the head of Holofernes. She also argues that the subject's rich golden dress, studded with jewels and pearls to shine like the moon, was a play on Olimpia's maiden name Luna (the Italian word for moon). [3] In 1603 Zoppio wrote a short book, only published later under the title Consolation of Melchiorre Zoppio, moral philosophy on the death of his wife Olimpia Luna Zoppio (Consolatione di Melchiorre Zoppio, filosofo morale nella morte della moglie Olimpia Luna Z [oppio]). In it he described how he had a vision of a woman during a night of torment and how that vision revealed herself to be his late wife. The description of the vision's dress matches details in the painting, particularly its "turquoise dress, studded with pearls divided into flames representing shooting stars", adding that "all told, there was nothing in her that did not signify heaven to me". Though this does not match the colour of the dress in the portrait, it does match its pearl motifs of shooting stars, perhaps meaning the book was inspired by the painting not vice versa. [3]
Not all art historians unreservedly accept Anderson's identification, especially since the funerary oration does not mention the fact that the double portrait was in the guise of Judith and Holofernes, a silence which is hard to explain given that fact's significance. [4] The head of Holofernes also does not seem to match other known portraits of Zoppio, such as a print now in the National Library of Austria [5] and a painted portrait, both probably copying the same source. [6] Anderson argues that the portrait in the print matches the head of Holofernes, whilst others argue the two images are only generically similar in appearance. [7]
Agostino Carracci was an Italian painter, printmaker, tapestry designer, and art teacher. He was, together with his brother, Annibale Carracci, and cousin, Ludovico Carracci, one of the founders of the Accademia degli Incamminati in Bologna. Intended to devise alternatives to the Mannerist style favored in the preceding decades, this teaching academy helped propel painters of the School of Bologna to prominence.
Antonio Marziale Carracci was an Italian painter. He was the natural son of Agostino Carracci.
Elisabetta Sirani was an Italian Baroque painter and printmaker who died in unexplained circumstances at the age of 27. She was one of the first women artists in early modern Bologna, who established an academy for other women artists.
Leonello Spada was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active in Rome and his native city of Bologna, where he became known as one of the followers of Caravaggio.
Bartolomeo Cesi was an Italian painter and draftsman of the Bolognese School. He made easel paintings as well as frescoes. He is known mainly for his religious paintings but he also painted portraits and mythological scenes.
Carlo Cesare Malvasia (1616–1693) was an Italian scholar and art historian from Bologna, best known for his biographies of Baroque artists titled Felsina pittrice, published in 1678. Together with his contemporary Giovanni Pietro Bellori, Malvasia is considered "among the best informed and most intelligent historians and critics of art who ever lived."
The Accademia degli Incamminati was one of the first art academies in Italy, founded in 1582 in Bologna.
Cesare Rinaldi an Italian early Baroque poet.
The Carracci were a Bolognese family of artists that played an instrumental role in bringing forth the Baroque style in painting. Brothers Annibale (1560–1609) and Agostino (1557–1602) along with their cousin Ludovico (1555–1619) worked collaboratively. The Carracci family left their legacy in art theory by starting a school for artists in 1582. The school was called the Accademia degli Incamminati, and its main focus was to oppose and challenge Mannerist artistic practices and principles in order to create a renewed art of naturalism and expressive persuasion.
Eleonora Monti was an 18th-century Italian artist best known as a portraitist. She spent much of her career in the city of Brescia, Italy, but is also affiliated with the city of Bologna. She was made an honorary member of the Accademia Clementina in Bologna in 1767, one of few women painters at the time to be recognized institutionally.
Marjorie Elizabeth Cropper is a British-born art historian with a special interest in Italian and French Renaissance and Baroque art and art literature. Dean of the National Gallery of Art’s Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) since December 2000, she previously held positions as Professor of Art History at Johns Hopkins University and director of the university’s Charles S. Singleton Center for Italian Studies at Villa Spelman in Florence.
Saint Sebastian Thrown into the Cloaca Maxima is a 1612 oil on canvas painting by Ludovico Carracci, now in the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, which acquired it in 1971. A preparatory drawing survives in the Louvre.
Self-Portrait is a 1593 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, now in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma. It is dated 17 April 1593 on the top left of the canvas.
Crucifixion with Saints or Crucifixion with Mourners and Saints Bernardino of Siena, Francis of Assisi and Petronius is a 1583 oil on canvas, now in the church of Santa Maria della Carità in Bologna. The work was originally sited in the Macchiavelli chapel in San Nicolò di San Felice, Bologna, next to Santa Maria della Carità, which was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War. It was then temporarily moved to the Soprintendenza di Bologna and finally to its current home.
The Three Marys at the Tomb, The Three Marys or The Pious Women at Christ's Tomb is a 1598 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, now in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, which acquired it in 1836.
Pietà with Saints Clare, Francis and Mary Magdalene is a 1585 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, now in the Galleria nazionale di Parma.
Pietà with Saint Francis and Saint Mary Magdalene is a 1602-1607 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carraci. Now in the Louvre, it was looted from the Mattei family chapel in San Francesco a Ripa in Rome by Napoleon's troops in 1797 and was not returned at the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
Portrait of Monsignor Giovanni Battista Agucchi is a 1604 oil-on-canvas painting now in York Art Gallery, to which it was presented via the National Art Collections Fund in 1955 by Francis Denis Lycett Green (1893–1959), a collector and younger brother of Sir Edward Arthur Lycett Green, 3rd Baronet. Long attributed to Domenichino, it is now usually attributed to Annibale Carracci, though some art historians still support the old attribution based on archival discoveries. The Gallery accepts the new attribution, though this is not yet reflected in its ArtUK entry.
The Last Communion of Saint Jerome or The Communion of Saint Jerome is an oil on canvas painting by Italian painter Agostino Carracci, created c. 1592-1597. It was produced for San Girolamo alla Certosa church in Bologna and it is now held in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna.
The Accademia dei Gelati was a learned society of intellectuals, mainly noblemen, that significantly influenced the cultural and political life of Baroque Bologna. It is considered one of the most important 17th-century Italian academies.
