An important painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, attributed to the Baroque artist and proto-feminist, has taken center stage at the Getty Museum after extensive conservation. The painting, recently uncovered after being undisplayed for possibly two centuries, explores a playful battle-of-the-sexes theme. Art historian Sheila Barker praised it as one of Gentileschi's masterpieces, asserting its authenticity with no evidence suggesting a workshop attribution. The painting has a rich history, originally hanging in Beirut's Sursock Palace, which suffered damage during the 2020 port explosion, prompting renewed scholarly interest. A historical receipt links it to the Marquis de Spinelli's legacy.
"To my eye it is one of her great masterpieces," says the art historian Sheila Barker, who first saw it in the Getty's conservation studio a year ago. "It's an absolute enchantment—powerful, fascinating, fun." She says she has "no doubts" about the Gentileschi attribution and "didn't see any evidence of a workshop hand."
"To the best of my knowledge, it has never been shown publicly," says the Getty's senior curator of paintings Davide Gasparotto, who is investigating the work's provenance.
The painting previously hung unidentified in Sursock Palace in Beirut, home to the Sursock family. But after the port explosion in the city in 2020 damaged the home and its holdings, the painting drew serious attention from scholars such as Barker, who even before seeing it in person attributed it to Gentileschi.
Roderick Sursock has since located an undated receipt, which appears to be around 100 years old, documenting its acquisition by his grandfather from a dealer in Naples.
Collection
[
|
...
]