Personification of Painting

A Personification of Painting — a female figure representing the art of painting itself — was painted by Orazio Gentileschi in 1636 as part of the allegorical series commissioned for Charles I's English court. This type of subject, known as an 'Allegoria della Pittura,' had a venerable tradition in Italian art, most famously realized by Artemisia Gentileschi (Orazio's daughter) in her celebrated self-portrait in Windsor Castle, also painted around this period. For Orazio, the subject allowed him to demonstrate his painterly virtuosity in a reflexive image: painting Painting. The figure typically holds a palette, brushes, and mask — attributes described in Cesare Ripa's Iconologia — and is shown with a golden chain around her neck, another emblem. This Royal Collection canvas is part of the group of allegories Orazio produced in England, which represent some of the finest examples of refined Caravaggesque painting in British collections.

Oil on canvas with Gentileschi's smooth, layered surface. The figure's attributes — palette, brushes, mask, golden chain — are each rendered with the material specificity appropriate to their status as meaningful objects. Drapery, often shown as richly colored to demonstrate the painter's chromatic range, receives Gentileschi's full attention to fold and light reflection.