LOT DETAILS

Materials:

oil on canvas

Measurements:

47.99 in. (121.90 cm.) (height) by 34.61 in. (87.90 cm.) (width)

Markings:

signed 'A. CAR. BON.' (lower left) and inscribed 'ECCE CAPVT HOLOFERNES' (lower left)

Exhibited:

Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, and New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, 10 September-10 November 1986, 19 December 1986-16 February 1987, and 26 March-24 May 1987, pp. 258-259, no. 81, as Agostino Carracci, Portrait of a Woman as Judith (entry by D. Benati). Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, on loan 1988-2013.

Literature:

'Oratione di Lucio Faberio Academico gelato in morte d'Agostin Carroccio', in B. Morelli, Il funerale d'Agostin Carraccio fatto in Bologna sua patria da gl'Incaminati Academici del Disegno, Bologna, 1603, pp. 37-39; reprinted in C. Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice, Bologna, 1678, I, pp. 429-430. D. DeGrazia Bohlin, Prints and Related Drawings by the Carracci Family, Washington, 1979, p. 56. J. Anderson, "Portrait of Olimpia Luna as 'Judith' and Melchiorre Zoppio as 'Holofernes'", in Around 1610: the Onset of the Baroque, London, 1985, pp. 18-25, no. 4. E. Waterhouse, "Introduction", in Around 1610: the Onset of the Baroque, London, 1985, pp. 8-9. N. Turner, "Early Baroque Paintings at Matthiesen, London", The Burlington Magazine, CXXVII, no. 989, August 1985, p. 548. J. Parry, Times Literary Supplement, 12 July 1985 (review of the Matthiesen exhibition). E. Young, Apollo, July 1985, p. 70 (review of the Matthiesen exhibition). G. Andrisani, Il Seicento napoletano: riflessioni sulle mostre del 1985 e relativa iconografia francescana, Gaeta, 1986, p. 59. J. Anderson, "Portrait of Olimpia Luna as 'Judith' and Melchiorre Zoppio as 'Holofernes'", in Paintings from Emilia, 1500-1700, exhibition catalogue, Newhouse Galleries, New York, London, 1987, pp. 64-70. J. Anderson, "The Head-Hunter and Head-Huntress in Italian Religious Portraiture", in W. James and D.H. Johnson, eds., Vernacular Christianity: Essays in the Social Anthropology of Religion, New York, 1988, pp. 66-68, fig. 8. R. Zapperi, Annibale Carracci: Ritratto di un artista da giovane, Turin, 1989, pp. 31, 41-42, note 15. E. Negro and M. Pirondini, La Scuola dei Carracci: i seguaci di Annibale e Agostino, Modena, 1995, p. 20, as "il cosidetto Ritratto di Olimpia Luna Zoppi". A.C. Danto, Encounters & Reflections: Art in the Historical Present, Berkeley, 1997, p. 91. R. Morselli and A.C. Sones, eds., Collezioni e quadrerie nella Bologna del Seicento: inventari 1640-1707, Los Angeles, 1998, pp.373, 375 note 3. A. Summerscale, Malvasia's Life of the Carracci: Commentary and Translation, University Park, 2000, pp. 204-205, note 260, 320, note 571. D. Benati, Figure come il naturale: il ritratto a Bologna dai Carracci al Crespi, Milan, 2001, p. 49 note 86. D.M. Stone, "In Figura Diaboli: Self and Myth in Caravaggio's David and Goliath", in P.M. Jones and T. Worcester, eds., From Rome to Eternity: Catholicism and the arts in Italy, ca. 1550-1650, Boston and Leiden, 2003, p. 27. C. De Capoa and S. Zuffi, Old Testament Figures in Art, Los Angeles, 2003, IV, p. 284. B. Uppenkamp, Judith und Holofernes: In der italienischen Malerei des Barock, Berlin, 2004, pp. 144, 214 note 22, fig. 73. A. Modesti, Elisabetta Sirani: una virtuosa del seicento bolognese, Bologna, 2004, p. 231. T.F. Earle and K.J.P. Lowe, Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, Cambridge and New York, 2005, p. 147 note 64. D.M. Stone, "Self and Myth in Caravaggio's David and Goliath", in G. Warwick, ed., Caravaggio: Realism, Rebellion, Reception, Newark, 2006, p. 44 note 36. C.L. Fiorato, 'Giuditta o la politica delle ombre. Sulla fruizione figurativo-letteraria del Liber Iudith nel Rinascimento', in L. Borsetto, ed., Giuditta e alter eroine bibliche tra Rinascimento e Barocco, Padua, 2006, p. 36. L.H. Zirpolo, Historical Dictionary of Baroque Art and Architecture, Lanham, 2010, p. 121.

Provenance:

Acquired from the artist by Professor Melchiorre Zoppio (d. 1633), Bologna, by whom bequeathed to his brother-in-law in his will, 12 December 1633 ('Item ligavit Per. Ill. D. Antonio Lunae eius cognato imaginem Ill. Donae Olimpiae Lunae eiusdem D. Testatoris primae coniugis cum suis ornamentis', in Atti Norarili of Giovanni Albani, Archivio di Stato, Bologna). Antonio Luna, Bologna. Lorenzo Pasinelli (1629-1700), Bologna. Bonfigliuoli House, Bologna, c. 1840. Bartolomeo Musotii, Bologna, c. 1840-41. Private collection, U.S.A. with Mattheisen Fine Art Ltd., London, from whom acquired by the present owner.