Diana de Rosa, called Annella di Massimo (1602-1643), Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist, Oil on canvas, 127.5 x 99.7 cm, Sotheby’s Old Master and 19th Century Paintings Evening Auction, London, 2 July 2025
‘Salome’ is a work that reopens the question of how we write art history, and whom we include in its pages. Layers of dirt, oxidations, old varnishes, and old restoration obscure the surface, but the composition nonetheless reveals De Rosa’s refined mastery of Neapolitan Caravaggism.
Born in Naples in 1602 to the painter Tommaso de Rosa, Diana was raised in an artistic household. Following her father’s death in 1610, her mother married the Caravaggist painter Filippo Vitale, under whose guidance she is thought to have received her first training. Instruction in drawing may also have come from Pacecco de Rosa, either a brother or an uncle. Formal apprenticeship followed in the workshop of Gaspare del Popolo, where she met the painter Agostino Beltrano, later her husband. Her talent soon attracted the attention of Massimo Stanzione (1585–1656), the most sought-after master in Naples, who brought her into his studio. There, she worked from his designs, producing paintings he often retouched before being delivered to clients. This close professional association led to her being known as Annella di Massimo.
What sets De Rosa apart is not just her technical fluency but the resilience she showed in maintaining a professional career while raising seven children. Archival evidence confirms that she remained active throughout, supported by Stanzione, who, unusually for the period, provided her with maternity pay and ensured she stayed on his workshop’s payroll during periods of absence. It is a striking example of a woman artist finding space to work on her own terms in a profoundly male-dominated environment. In De Rosa’s hands, the Neapolitan Baroque becomes a space in which a woman artist’s voice could, against the odds, still be heard.