Porträt einer sitzenden Dame (Signora Caterina Savelli?)

We remember Artemisia for her biblical women taking terrible revenge, Judith with the sword. Portraits like this one were the other, steadier half of her working life, the commissions that actually paid. Through the 1620s she moved between Rome and Venice, taking the likenesses of noblewomen dressed in the black and gold that wealth wore then. Who exactly sat for this is no longer certain; the best guess is Caterina Savelli, a Roman princess. Look at the gilded knob on the arm of her chair. Artemisia has caught the woman's face reflected in it, in profile, a small piece of showing-off that echoes a famous trick of Raphael's. The picture dropped out of sight for a very long time and only resurfaced at auction a few years ago.