Virgin and Child with a Rosary

By 1651 Artemisia Gentileschi was in her late fifties, living in Naples, then a Spanish-ruled city, and painting largely for Spanish patrons. This is one of her last known works, and an unusually small and private one, made in oil on a copper plate rather than canvas, the kind of intimate devotional picture meant to be held or hung in a bedchamber. It shows the Virgin drowsy over her sleeping child, a rosary in hand, quiet and domestic. Artemisia had built her fame on fierce subjects like Judith beheading an enemy general, so a tender scene like this shows another side of a long career. The painting entered the Spanish royal collection and hangs today at the Escorial, the great palace-monastery outside Madrid.