polity papal statesconcept:era early modern

Judith Beheading Holofernes

Name: Provenio Provenance Knowledge Graph
License: https://provenio.art/terms

Oil on canvas (c.1598–1599) by Caravaggio, depicting the biblical heroine Judith decapitating the Assyrian general Holofernes, with her elderly maidservant Abra looking on. Held at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica (Palazzo Barberini), Rome.

Scholarly Significance

Caravaggio's first great biblical tableau; establishes the Caravaggesque vocabulary of chiaroscuro and physical immediacy.

Notes

·Commissioned by Ottavio Costa, a Genoese banker active in Rome.
·The model for Judith is believed to be Fillide Melandroni, a Roman courtesan who appears in several Caravaggio works.
·Compositionally more dynamic than Artemisia Gentileschi's later version (c.1614–1620, Uffizi): the act of decapitation is in mid-stroke.
·Source: Book of Judith 13:6–8.
·Purchased for the Galleria Nazionale from the Coppi collection, 1895.
·Compare: Artemisia Gentileschi's version at the Uffizi (c.1614–1620) which is notably more violent and physically intense.