(Pisa 1563–1639 London)
Portrait of a young woman as a Sibyl,
oil on canvas, 87.5 x 77 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly Giovan Battista Bolognetti collection, Rome in 1627;
Private European collection;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
possibly C. Mazzarelli, Arte e immagine del papato Borghese, Florence 2005, p. 180, under Divisione dei Beni [di Giovanni Battista Bolognetti]

We are grateful to Pierluigi Carofano for suggesting that the present painting is a fully autograph work by Orazio Gentileschi. He intends to publish this work in his forthcoming monograph on the artist.

We are also grateful to Gianni Papi for independently suggesting that the present painting is a fully autograph work by Orazio Gentileschi (written communication 2018).

A second version of the present composition, also by Orazio Gentileschi, is conserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (see fig. 1). It has been suggested that, as the Houston version is significantly overpainted and may have been left unfinished by the artist, it is likely that the present painting is the original prototype of the celebrated composition.

Additionally, in favour of this argument, there is documentary evidence of a painting, mentioned in the 1627 testament of Giovanni Battista Bolognetti entitled: ‘una sibila con un sciugatore in testa del Gentileschi’ (a sibyl with a cloth on her head by Gentileschi, see C. Mazzarelli, Arte e immagine del papato Borghese, Florence 2005, pp. 174-175; 180). It is reasonable to assume that the entry refers to the present painting as it is unlikely that an art collector of the stature of Bolognetti, who was the Apostolic Secretary to Pope Paul V, would have had an unfinished painting in his collection.

As the present painting and the celebrated Houston Sibyl are so similar, it is of fundamental importance to understand the working practice of the artist. Orazio is known to have frequently repeated his compositions, his works displaying corresponding and related figures throughout his oeuvre. In the 1637 catalogue of the collection of King Charles I, the artist Abraham van der Doort states that Orazio Gentileschi kept a large folio of drawings to record his compositions, which he could use for reference. (see K. Christiansen, J. W. Mann [eds.], Orazio e Artemisia Gentileschi, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2001, p. 21). Furthermore, for paintings in larger formats, such as the picture under discussion, it is documented that he used cartoons, from which he made tracings, to recreate figures from his previous compositions.

Observing the works, small differences in the composition become apparent. For instance, in the Houston painting, the sibyl rests her left arm on an invisible support, which is contrary to the sibyl’s arm in the present work, which rests on an extended plinth. Furthermore, the scroll is also a different size, stretching a few centimeters further along the back of the woman’s left hand in the present work and appearing unrolled on the outermost sheet. In addition, the folds of the turban in the Houston painting are different. As Raymond Ward Bissel observed some parts of the Houston Sibyl are covered by areas of overpaint and additions, including the upper part of the turban and the fingers of the right hand (see R. W. Bissell, Orazio Gentileschi and the Poetic Tradition in Caravaggesque Painting, University Park/London 1981, p. 187: ‘the upper part of the turban and [… the] fingers of the right hand are new’). In contrast, the present composition appears relatively intact and stylistically coherent. Carofano believes that it may be Orazio’s first version of the composition and he dates it to around 1610.

In the present composition Gentileschi depicts the different texture of materials including the slate blue dress, which does not absorb light, but reflects it. The partially shadowed face of the sibyl is animated by a subtle play of reflected light and the complexion is smooth. The figure is wrapped in a sumptuous mantle of ochre damask silk, richly decorated with floral and leaf designs; the left arm rests on a sort of stone tabletop, while in the left hand she holds a rolled-up scroll on which her prophecies are recorded; on her head she wears a linen or cotton turban-like cloth.

Orazio Gentileschi, although older than Caravaggio by six years, was deeply influenced by his work, nevertheless continuing to pursue a wholly personal, and deeply lyrical style of painting. Although he started painting relatively late – according to the records in his late 30s – he was probably the most successful of all Caravaggio’s associates and certainly the most recognised internationally. His travels, in fact, did much to spread knowledge of Caravaggio’s style overseas as Orazio’s career took him to Florence, the Marche, Rome, Genoa, Paris and London, where he became court painter to Charles I in 1626, and where he was to remain until his death some thirteen years later.

Before he came into contact with Caravaggio’s revolutionary style, Orazio had been part of the previous generation of artists whose point of reference was the work of the Carracci family, and whose artistic formation was rooted in the sixteenth century, inspired by the works of Michelangelo, Raphael and Domenichino. His rapid maturing owed much to his association with his younger aquaintance, Carravaggio, whom he met Rome in around 1600. However, the lyricism and sense of colour which Orazio was never to abandon, and which were a result of his Tuscan late-mannerist training, meant that the term Caravaggesque can only partially be applied to Gentileschi’s work. He was one of the few artists of his generation, who succeeded in blending Caravaggesque naturalism with formal sophistication, and in using light as an instrument to celebrate beauty, rather than as a theatrical device.

During these formative years Gentileschi repeatedly made use of Caravaggio’s innovations in representing single figures, close to the picture plane, against a background that is bare but for a few details. Observing the sibyl in the present painting, it has been suggested that Orazio was influenced by Caravaggio’s Lute player (see fig. 2) in its various versions, and also by his Doria Pamphilj Penitent Magdalene (see fig. 3). It can be noted that there are similarities between the latter painting by Caravaggio and the painting under discussion as can be seen, for example, in the directional light coming from above, striking the young woman’s face and enhancing its oval shape, the spherical eye sockets, and the full and sensual lips. Nevertheless, despite the influence of the younger painter visible here, it should be emphasised that Gentileschi is not to be mistaken as a mere imitator of Caravaggio - he reinterpreted Caravaggio’s naturalism, overlaying it with his own principles and artistic innovations.