Lot 131: Domenico Fiasella, il Sarzana (Sarzana 1589-1669 Genoa)

Queen Artemisia oil on canvas 39 7/8 x 30 in. (101.2 x 76.1 cm.) LITERATURE Catalogue of the exhibition, Johannes Vermeer, The Hague and Washington, 1996, p. 111, under no. 5, fig. 4, as by Fiasella. NOTES Artemisia was the wife of Mausolus, the satrap of Caria in Asia Minor. She succeeded her husband on his death in 353 B.C., and was responsible for the erection of a great monument to his memory (although construction probably began in his lifetime). Known to posterity as the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, it was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was said that she mixed the ashes of Mausolus in liquid that she then drank, thereby, as observed by Valerius Maximus, making of herself a living, breathing tomb. In consequence, Artemisia was understood in the Renaissance as symbolizing a wife's devotion to her husband.