VIRGINIA VEZZI, (VIRGINIA DA VEZZO)
(Velletri 1600 – 1638 Paris)

Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Oil on canvas
39 ⅛ x 29 ¼ inches (99.4 x 74.3 cm)

Provenance:

Private Collection, Italy

Virginia Vezzi, otherwise known as Virginia da Vezzo, is one of the most intriguing figures of the Roman Baroque. Like many women artists of her time, she received her initial training from her father, the little-known painter Pompeo Vezzi. However, unlike her counterparts, Vezzi’s style did not depend on that of her father. Vezzi’s precocious talent was recognized at a young age, and the family moved from their hometown of Velletri to Rome in order to foster her abilities. Her most important teacher and artistic influence was Simon Vouet—the French Caravaggist painter active in Rome and the artist’s future husband. Vezzi attended drawing lessons in Vouet’s home and worked in his workshop in Rome. At the age of 24, she was inducted into the Accademia di San Luca in Rome before moving to Paris with her husband. Although few works by Vezzi are known today, possibly due to her premature death in 1638, her art and career have recently been the subject of renewed scholarly attention and collector interest. A group of paintings have been convincingly associated with the artist based on stylistic comparison with her sole securely documented work.

The only autograph painting known by Vezzi is the Judith with the Head of Holofernes of ca. 1624–1626 in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes (Fig. 1). This painting was likely Vezzi’s submission for induction into the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, and its composition is recorded in an engraving inscribed “Virginia de Vezzo pinx” by Claude Mellan (Fig. 2), a Frenchman who trained with Vouet in Rome and whose engravings provide crucial evidence for our understanding of Vezzi.

Vezzi moved to Paris with her husband in the late 1620s after Vouet’s appointment as premier peintre du roi, or court painter, to King Louis XIII. She frequently served as a model for her husband, appearing throughout his oeuvre as various biblical figures and mythological heroines, including his Mary Magdalene, now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Fig. 3). Vezzi also found success in France leading drawing classes for young women at the Louvre—where she resided with her husband—and painting independent works.

This striking canvas is a newly discovered work by Vezzi, which has emerged from a private collection in Italy. It is a self-portrait of the artist in the guise of the early Christian virgin martyr Saint Catherine of Alexandria shown with her traditional attributes—the crown on her head, a martyr’s palm, and the broken wheel of her torture on which she rests her right arm. The saint is depicted half-length and seated within a dark space that function to both isolate and highlight the subject. She is bathed a bright light that illuminates her alabaster skin, golden garment, and the prominent pendant and jewels along her neckline. The translucent white cloth that rests on her shoulders and the billowing sleeve of her dress, almost sculptural in the dramatic play of light and shadow, are both masterfully rendered and speak to the artist’s great facility with a brush.

 In addition to serving as a model for her husband, Vezzi’s likeness frequently appeared in her own works. Comparison with an engraved portrait of Vezzi by Claude Mellan confirms that the figure of Saint Catherine is a self-portrait (Fig. 4-5), particularly due to the shape of nose and lips, as well as the prominent pearl earrings. The saint’s idealized beauty and direct presentation—divorced from any specific context and displaying a particular expressiveness in her gaze as she engages directly with the viewer—similarly indicates that it portrays a specific person. As a self-portrait, our painting follows a tradition of women artists painting themselves in the guise of strong and powerful women, including saints. Most prominent of these is Artemisia Gentileschi, whom Vezzi befriended in Rome in the 1620s.

Dr. Consuelo Lollobrigida has confirmed Virginia Vezzi’s authorship of the present painting upon first-hand inspection and will publish it in her forthcoming monograph on the artist. Lollobrigida has identified our painting as a self-portrait and has described it as the “masterpiece of her early Roman period,” suggesting a date between 1623–1625, just before her Judith with the Head of Holofernes.[1]

[1] A catalogue entry on this painting by Dr. Lollobrigida is available upon request.