The Same Model, the Same Pose

 

I mentioned yesterday that I went back to the Cleveland Museum of Art for yet another visit on Wednesday.  Before resuming my comprehensive tour of each gallery, however, I checked out a couple of new special exhibits.

The first exhibit is entitled "Variations: The Reuse of Models by Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi".   The centerpiece of this exhibit, which consists of only five paintings, is a work that belongs to our museum.  It was recently cleaned and restored to its original beauty.

The painting is by Orazio Gentileschi, an Italian artist of the Baroque era.  In 1623 he painted this picture which depicts the story from Greek mythology of the Princess Danae, who was visited and impregnated by the god Zeus in the form of a shower of gold coins.

It was not unusual for artists to use tracings to create multiple copies of paintings which proved to be popular.  This is an identical copy of an earlier Gentileschi painting which is in the Getty Museum in California.  

Next to the painting of Danae is another Gentileschi work which was loaned for this exhibit from a private collection in Dallas, "Penitent Magdalene".

With some variations in the pose, it appears that Gentileschi traced the figure of his Danae onto the painting of Mary Magdalene.  

Another Gentileschi painting in the exhibit is "Young Woman with a Violin" from the Detroit Institute of Arts. 

Next to it is Gentileschi's "Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes", based on a Biblical story.  (This work comes from a museum in Hartford, Connecticut.)

Once again, it appears that Gentileschi did a tracing and used the head of the violinist for his Judith.

In an era in which women could not break into the profession of painting, Gentileschi's daughter, Artemisia, followed in her father's footsteps from an early age.  She was considered a curiosity, but nowadays her work has been reevaluated.  Artemisia Gentileschi is now regarded as an important figure in Italian Baroque art.

Artemisia also did a painting  of Danae.  This is on loan from the St. Louis Museum of Art.

In Artemisia's version of the scene, she has included an element often used in paintings of this theme... her maidservant is collecting the gold coins in her skirt.  But art historians are more intrigued by the expression on Danae's face.  Instead of welcoming the intrusion of Zeus with an outstretched arm, her Danae has what some have described as "an expression of resigned anguish".  This has been attributed this to the fact that Artemisia was raped by a fellow artist, and the trial of the rapist was one of the most celebrated cases of the day.

Next to  Artemisia's painting is a photograph of a painting which is in a private collection in Italy, "The Death of Cleopatra", which once again has the same model in the same pose.

It is uncertain if this Cleopatra was painted by Artemisia or by her father.  But since this painting is much larger than Artemisia's "Danae", it was obviously not an example of tracing, but of skillful copying.

This small exhibit was a very interesting look into the practices of painters in that era.

If you would like to learn how 15th and 16th century artists did tracings, here is an article with a video demonstration of the process...

The Secret to Great Renaissance Art