Santa Cecilia is an early painting, from c. 1620, by the Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, a painter described as "a grand exception in the history of art - a successful woman painter in an era in which art was dominated by men."[1]
Description
It shows a woman in a yellow gown and white chemise playing a lute, with an organ in the background. A cleaning in 1988 made the organ visible and confirmed the depiction of Saint Cecelia, an early Christian martyr who later became associated with musical instruments.[2]
Provenance
It is believed to have been painted in 1620 and is known to be in the collection Alessandro Biffi by 1637.[3] It passed to the Spada collection in the seventeenth century as a means of settling debts and is currently in the Galleria Spada in Rome.[3] In 1759 it was inventoried as "school of Titian", then later ascribed to Caravaggio and Caroselli, before being suggested as a work of Artemisia in 1911.[4]
Bissell, R. Ward (1999). Artemisia Gentileschi and the Authority of Art : Critical Reading and Catalogue Raisonné. University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press. ISBN9780271017877.
Locker, Jesse M. (2015). Artemisia Gentileschi: The Language of Painting. New Haven, Yale University Press. ISBN9780300185119.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
