Portrait d'un gentilhomme, probablement Antoine de Ville

We think of Artemisia Gentileschi as the painter of Judith beheading Holofernes, all violence and drama, but in her own day she was prized as a portraitist, and this is one of the few portraits by her to survive. She painted it in Rome around 1626. The sitter is thought to be Antoine de Ville, a French military engineer who wrote a treatise on building fortifications, and Artemisia tucked her own initials into the delicate lace of his collar, a signature so discreet it went unnoticed for years. He stands full length, hand resting on his sword, the pose of a confident man of action. A year later an engraving of De Ville, credited to Artemisia, appeared at the front of his book.