St. Cecilia between St. Tiburtius and Valerianus

These two tondos, companion pieces formerly in the Marchesi Mattei’s important collection in Rome and once attributed to Ludovico Carracci’s pupil Lucio massari, were attributed by Federico Zeri to Antiveduto, a Tuscan artist active in Rome. St. Cecilia depicted with her husband and brother-in-law was a popular theme in the early 17th century but the picture has also been interpreted (halo notwithstanding) as Concordia, testifying to the complexity of the iconography.

Labels by famous authors dedicated to women

“Cherchez la femme! When Orazio Gentileschi painted this fabulously dramatic study, he was under the obvious spell of his friend, Caravaggio. But he was also intimately connected to another, much younger, artist: his own daughter Artemisia, who at 14 would have been working with him in the studio. Three years later, she would produce her own magnificent first work, Susannah and the Elders. It would take 400 years for her to find her rightful place in art history. Maybe her brush is in here somewhere.”
Sarah Dunant