Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes (Uffizi version) - Visual Analysis (original) (raw)
Related papers
2017
The apocryphal history of Judith and Holofernes has always attracted and fascinated artists and art lovers over the centuries. The reproduction, both of the beheading of Holofernes and of the moments before and after this act, are among the religious scenes most represented throughout the history of art (painting, sculpture, literature and music) surviving even and resisting until the twentieth century. Artists such as Palma Vecchio, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Donatelo, Botticelli, Gustav Klimt and many others contributed to this episode, which is part of Western cultural imagery, as a recurrent theme of the historiography of art, crossing the centuries and being an essential part of the construction of their own identity and western culture. The aim is to discover the bible story of Judith and Holofernes, and why the Baroque period, concreted by the Italian painter Michelangelo da Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi was the liveliest period of the theme. Initial research was based on the book, Artemisia Gentileschi: The Image of the Female Hero in Italian Baroque Art, written by Mary Garrard. Further research was expanded by reading primary sources, such as the Story of Judith in the books of the Christian Old Testament, and scholarly journal articles within the fields of the biblical Judith and Gentileschi’s life. I also take as a reference and which is quite important, since it complements and emphasises the explanation of these works and are Wolfflin's "Fundamental Concepts of Art", which is a generalisation that explains the artistic works of Baroque Five points of view, that are: the linear and pictorial, surface and depth, closed form and open form, plurality and unity, clear and indistinct. These elements as I had already mentioned, are important because in a way, complement and end up being a more concrete way of analysing such works. And finally, a reflection on the image of Judith rather than on the symbolic context, a look at women as such since those times, and their connotation.
Judith and Holofernes: Reconstructing the History of a Painting Attributed to Artemisia Gentileschi
Heritage
Recently, a new painting attributed to Artemisia Gentileschi was found in Ferrara, representing Judith exposing the head of Holofernes. Some analyses have been required to verify the history of this canvas, because another known painting is very similar to this one with the exception of the heads of Judith and Holofernes. This last has been attributed to the father of Artemisia, Orazio Gentileschi. Many diagnostics were performed, starting from imaging techniques: from raking light, to UV fluorescence and X-ray radiography. All of them highlighted peculiarities concerning above all the head of the main female protagonist. The results suggest that the face of Judith was subjected to various reworks in the same artistic period because of the original materials still present. This is the reason for the peculiar fragility and, due to this, the restoration of the 20th Century focused on Judith’s face. However, in this contribution, we want to highlight the results obtained with XRF spot ...
2024
The biblical book of Judith gained wide popularity among Italian artists during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, especially among female artists living between 1550-1660, who frequently depicted the Jewish heroine. This study analyses visual representations of Judith by three Italian female artists: Lavinia Fontana (1552-1614), Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652) and Elisabetta Sirani (1638-1665). It contends that repeated themes in their works distinguish them substantially from those of their male contemporaries, presenting a multifaceted heroine who embodied diverse qualities, challenging the traditional representations of Judith as a one-dimensional figure, similar to prevailing perceptions of women in Italian patriarchal society. These distinctive representations by female artists stemmed from their lived experiences as women in male-dominated societies. Thus, this research contributes to the study of women in art, amplifying the voices of women who lived in Early Modern Italy.
Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi and ‘Judith and her maidservant’ in Oslo
The Burlington Magazine, 2019
Although ‘Judith and her maidservant with the head of Holofernes’ in the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, has long been attributed to Orazio Gentileschi, both its style and iconography make it more likely to be an early work by his daughter, Artemisia.
Questions of Expertise in Culture, Arts and Design, 2020
We performed a technological investigation of Judith with the Head of Holofernes (a copy of Cristofano Allori's work) from the Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts to clarify the painting's attribution. According to the current attribution, the copy was created in the 17th century Italy. Pigment analysis using X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy was undertaken in order to provide indicators of the approximate date of the Nizhny Tagil copy. The analysis results-supplemented with evidence from UV-imaging and micro-imaging, radiographic examination and studies of the paintings' support, ground and paint layers-agree with the existing attribution but do not necessarily confirm it. Comparison of the technical characteristics of the Nizhny Tagil Judith with the techniques of Western and Russian painting allows us to extend the dating. In addition, certain fragments of the painting were examined to provide insight into specifics of differences between the copy and the original, which turned out to be mainly the results of previous restorations.
Rocznik Teologii Katolickiej
Warszawski '... and therefore the Lord increased this her beauty ...' (Judith 10:4)-the beauty of Judith in Italian oratorios of the Baroque 1 Baroque oratorios about biblical Judith are usually regarded as oratori erotici. However, our research, covering the whole of the Italian Baroque oratorio repertoire on this subject, has revealed that such works did not dominated that repertoire to such a significant degree. For around one-third of the librettists, Judith's similarity to the donne forti of 17th-century Venetian operas was a true religious-moral and artistic challenge, accompanied by the conviction that thanks to music one could see with the ears what the lack of scenic action rendered invisible. The article cites several solutions for 'mirror scenes' in oratorios about Judith: both the openly secular (e.g. by A. Ottoboni and Vajani de Borgi) and those whose librettists endeavoured to include a commentary accentuating Judith's spiritual virtues or divine inspiration (Gigli, Silvani). Others (including Metastasio) eschewed that which was sensual in Judith. That strategy may be compared to dissimulazione onesta, the honest concealment of the facts, which was popular in those times, particularly in Italy..
Judith & Holofernes through the eyes of painters
Judith & Holofernes through the eyes of painters, 2017
A few months ago, I visited The National Gallery London. One of my favourite paintings had been borrowed from another gallery and was on display. The painting in question was Johann Liss (about 1595 - 1631), "Judith in the Tent of Holofernes." (1622). I was struck by its brutal nature and blood-curdling rendition of a simple Bible story. I wondered if other painters of this story depicted Judith and Holofernes in the same way?
Donatello’s Judith and Holofernes: a Symbol of Tyranny and Virtue in Renaissance Florence
Concordia Undergraduate Journal of Art History
In the mid-1400s, the Medici family displayed two bronze sculptures by Donatello in their courtyard: his David, and his Judith and Holofernes. This paper focuses on ways of seeing in Renaissance Florence, in particular how Donatello's Judith represented the Medici, and how Judith as a figure came to represent the republic of Florence.