In 2020, a massive explosion in the port of Beirut devastated the city. Among the wreckage was a previously unknown painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, the most celebrated woman painter of 17th-century Italy. Depicting a scene from the Greek myth of Hercules, the severely damaged painting came to Getty for in-depth conservation treatment. In an installation focused on its repair, the restored painting is accompanied by a rarely seen youthful Self-Portrait of the artist and by three of Gentileschi’s other paintings, highlighting her special focus on depicting donne forti (strong women) from the classical and biblical tradition.

Led by Dr. Davide Gasparotto, Save Venice Board Member and Senior Curator of Paintings, Getty Museum

Davide Gasparotto is Senior Curator and Head of the Paintings Department, and Chair, Curatorial Affairs at the J. Paul Getty Museum. He is also currently Chair of the Educational Resources Committee of the Save Venice Board of Directors. A native of Bassano del Grappa, Italy, he was previously the Director of the Fondazione Piero della Francesca in Sansepolcro (1996-98), and a curator at the National Gallery of Parma from 1999 to 2012. From 2012 to 2014 he was Director of the Galleria Estense in Modena. He was a Francis A. Yates Fellow at the Warburg Institute, London (1999), Paul Mellon Visiting Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. (2007), and an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2011-2012). At the Getty, he organized several acclaimed exhibitions such as Giovanni Bellini: Landscapes of Faith in Renaissance Venice (2017-18), Pontormo: Miraculous Encounters (2019), and Giacomo Ceruti: A Compassionate Eye (2023).

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Image: Artemisia Gentileschi, Hercules and Omphale, about 1635, oil on canvas, Beirut, Sursock Palace (photo: J. Paul Getty Museum). Image before conservation treatment.