Variations: The Reuse of Models in Paintings by Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi

While some museums are closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Apollo’s usual weekly pick of exhibitions will include shows at institutions that are currently open as well as digital projects providing virtual access to art and culture.

Conservation of Orazio Gentileschi’s Danaë (c. 1623) has shown how the artist copied figures and compositions from those he had already painted: this painting, held by the Cleveland Museum of Art, is a copy of one produced in Genoa two years previously. The restoration has revealed the meticulous attention the artist devoted to rendering the textures of flesh and drapery – creating a painting that rivalled his own earlier work. The Cleveland Museum of Art has placed the work at the centre of this small display alongside other remixes by Orazio and his daughter Artemisia Gentileschi, to explore how both artists returned to and adapted former subjects (11 April–22 August). Find out more from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s website.

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Danaë (c. 1623), Orazio Gentileschi. Cleveland Museum of Art

Danaë (c. 1612), Artemisia Gentileschi. Saint Louis Art Museum

Young Woman with a Violin (Saint Cecilia) (c. 1612), Orazio Gentileschi. Detroit Institute of Art

Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes (c. 1610–12), Orazio Gentileschi. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut