Judith and Holofernes: Reconstructing the History of a Painting Attributed to Artemisia Gentileschi

Recently, a new painting attributed to Artemisia Gentileschi was found in Ferrara, representing Judith exposing the head of Holofernes. Some analyses have been required to verify the history of this canvas, because another known painting is very similar to this one with the exception of the heads of Judith and Holofernes. This last has been attributed to the father of Artemisia, Orazio Gentileschi. Many diagnostics were performed, starting from imaging techniques: from raking light, to UV fluorescence and X-ray radiography. All of them highlighted peculiarities concerning above all the head of the main female protagonist. The results suggest that the face of Judith was subjected to various reworks in the same artistic period because of the original materials still present. This is the reason for the peculiar fragility and, due to this, the restoration of the 20th Century focused on Judith’s face. However, in this contribution, we want to highlight the results obtained with XRF spot analysis. Indeed, the artistic palette and the restoration materials have been characterized. For example, reds are in cinnabar, while Judith’s lips have been restored with cadmium red. The more interesting results regard the use of umber earths. In the painting, this iron-based pigment, rich in manganese, was revealed several times, and the correlation between Fe and Mn was easily verified. More than one correlation has been found due to the use of this pigment to darken the hues.