Virgin and Child with a Rosary


Virgin and Child with a Rosary is one of the last known paintings by the Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi. Small in size and painted with oil on copper, it was completed in 1651. It currently hangs in the El Escorial collection, in Spain. There has been some debate as to whether the painting is actually by Gentileschi, despite her signature appearing across the edge of the table. One scholar pointed to the use of bright red, blue and green in the painting, which Gentileschi does not use elsewhere. However, the 2001 catalogue for the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, suggests the painting is by Gentileschi, and that it draws heavily on early devotional pictures by the artist Guido Reni.