A Missing Painting By Artemisia Gentileschi Now On View In Texas

Completed while Gentileschi was living in Florence with her husband, a lesser known painter, the three-and-a-half by three foot piece was commissioned by Fernando Enríquez Afán de Ribera, the third Duke of Alcalá, and Viceroy of Naples, during his time as the Spanish ambassador in Rome. 

Though the painting was originally located in his home, Casa de Pilatos in Seville, Gentileschi’s work disappeared from public records after being passed down to Ribera's heirs. However, memory of the piece didn’t disappear, and multiple duplicates had been rendered during its absence. One of the well-known copies can be found in the Cathedral of Seville, and another is held by the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City.

Penitent Mary Magdalene, also known as Mary Magdalene as Melancholy, was finished in the years following one of her best-known paintings, Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes (1623–25), now part of the the Detroit Institute of Arts’ permanent collection. In fact, it was subtle allusions to this earlier piece that helped art historian Jesse Locker and others verify it as an original in 2021. 

As noted in the article published by Apollo Magazine, “Subtle interaction of light and shadow in the treatment of the Magdalene’s neck,” in addition to “the treatment of lace, which bends and curves under at irregular intervals, and especially in the portrayal of drapery with its neatly constructed and deliberately variegated shadows and highlights,” were reasons to suspect the painting’s authenticity, Locker recounts. 

The objects on the table next to Mary were also a clue into the mystery behind the painting’s authorship. In many copies of the piece, the pewter ointment jar, which resembles the armor and candelabra present in Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes, along with the small hand-held mirror, often appear murky and muddled in the replicas. 

However, these are important symbolic details of the piece, representing Mary's denunciation of vanity and her former lifestyle. 

When the painting suddenly resurfaced at the Paris auction house Tajan in 2001, it wasn’t in the best condition. Since there’d been so many copies of the work, alongside a strange and prudish edit that covered a portion of Mary’s upper breast and underarm (which has been restored and removed), both bidders and representatives at Tajan suspected the work to be another duplicate, subsequently selling for 1.5 million Francs, or $206,441. 

It was the buyer's lucky day compared to Gentileschi’s current auction prices. Her record is now set at $5.28 million for the painting Lucretia, sold in 2019.

Regarded as a proto-feminist icon, Gentileschi’s noble patrons included Cosimo II de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and King Charles I of England, just to name a few. All this was achieved after a scandalous trial, one in which she withstanded “sibille” hand torture, in the aftermath of being raped by her painting teacher, Agostino Tassi, at the age of 17.

Now, her work is proudly displayed beside Caravaggio’s Cardsharps (1595), and Guercino’s Christ and the Woman of Samaria (1619–20). In a statement, museum director Eric Lee shared, “The Kimbell has long wished to acquire a work by Artemisia Gentileschi, but until now, never found the right painting for its collection by this major figure of Italian Baroque art.” 

New York art dealer Adam Williams Fine Art was in charge of finalizing the acquisition of Penitent Mary Magdalene for the museum from the American collector who bought it in 2001, though a final price has not been revealed.