Head of an Old Woman

Head of an Old Woman

Head of an Old Woman

Artist:
Orazio Borgianni (Italian, Rome 1578–1616 Rome)
Date:
after 1610
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
20 7/8 x 15 3/8 in. (53 x 39 cm)
Classification:
Paintings
Credit Line:
Purchase, Gwynne Andrews Fund and Marco Voena and Luigi Koelliker Gift, 2010

Among the most modern-seeming pictures of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are informal studies of heads in which the artist eschews portraiture in favor of exploring character and expression. In this striking depiction of an old woman lit by a merciless shaft of light, Borgianni seems to give us a meditation on old age and mortality. Orazio Borgianni was one of the most individual followers of Caravaggio.

Provenance
private collection, Rome; sale, Antonina, Rome, 2001; [Pinacoteca di A. Calandra & C. Sas, Naples, from 2001]; Luigi Koelliker, Milan (by 2006–10); [Robilant + Voena, London, 2010]

Copyright Image
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