Carlo Maratta

Ceci Collection, Rome.

Florence, Palazzo Vecchio, Mostra del Ritratto Italiano, 1911, Room XXVI, no. 17 (as 'una scultrice' and 'scuola italiano').

AA.VV., Il Ritratto italiano dal Caravaggio al Tiepolo, Bergamo 1927, p. 191, reproduced plate XV (as 'una scultrice' and "scuola piemontese'l);
F. Petrucci, "Traccia per un repertorio della ritrattistica romana tra '500 e '700", in M. Natoli, F. Petrucci (ed.), Donne di Roma, dall'Impero Romano al 1860, ritrattistica romana al femminile, Rome 2003, p. 24;
S. Rudolph, "Carlo Maratti. Ritratto di Francesca Gommi Maratti", in F. Petrucci (ed.), Mola e il suo tempo. Pittura di figura dalla collezione Koelliker, Milan 2005, pp. 228-229;
F. Petrucci, Pittura di Ritratto a Roma. Il Seicento, vol. II, pp. 342-343, vol. III, p. 650, no. 420.

This impressive allegorical portrait was published by Francesco Petrucci in 2003, who first recognised the hand as Carlo Maratta.  Due to the existence of a second version with some variations, formerly in the Walpole Gallery, London, the scholar was able to identify the sitter as Francesca Gommi, the artist's third wife.  Petrucci suggests a dating of this work to circa 1690, due to the age of the sitter and artist's stylistic language; while Maratta and Gommi did not marry until 1700, the two had lived together for many years prior to their legal union.  The 1711 inventory of Francesca Gommi lists two portraits of the Signora, along with a third by Procaccini, and a fourth copy.  Of the three versions known today, including one given to Procaccini by Stella Rudolph, Petrucci believes the present canvas to be the prime.