According to the New York Times, an unnamed painting destroyed in the 2020 Beirut explosion was determined to be a long-lost painting by 17th-century artist Artemisia Gentileschi. After the artwork was damaged in the explosion, it was transferred to restoration professionals, who determined who painted it.
The picture was damaged while it was at the Sursock Palace, a historic home held by Yvonne Sursock, a wealthy and powerful Sursock family member who perished as a result of the explosion’s injuries. Her parents, Alfred Sursock and Donna Maria Teresa Serra di Cassano, amassed a magnificent art collection in the Palace. They collected Italian Baroque and 19th- and 20th-century Lebanese works together, thus it seems to reason that they would have a piece by Gentileschi, a well-known Baroque painter.
The big picture represents a scenario from the tale of Omphale, Queen of Lydia, and Hercules in which Hercules is condemned to serve Omphale for a year. Artists have interpreted the story for both its sensual and comic aspects. Hercules is frequently represented doing women’s tasks, while Omphale relaxes in Hercules’ leopard leather robe, holding his characteristic olive-wood club. While Gentileschi’s picture does not perfectly frame Omphale and Hercules, the narrative fits beautifully within Gentileschi’s body of work, which highlighted female empowerment.
“A lot of would-be Artemisia paintings have come along hopeful of attaining consensus from the market and scholars, and we’ve been largely disappointed. And yet from this completely unexpected corner of the southern Mediterranean, there has emerged this stunning example of Artemisia’s mature genius,” says Sheila Barker, a Gentileschi scholar to Times.
The picture is now being repaired at Los Angeles’ Getty Museum.