concept:era early modern

Judith Slaying Holofernes

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

Oil on canvas (c. 1614–1620) by Artemisia Gentileschi, depicting the biblical heroine Judith decapitating the Assyrian general Holofernes. Held at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. One of the most powerful Baroque treatments of the subject.

Scholarly Significance

Anchor the Italian Baroque cluster with Artemisia Gentileschi's most celebrated work, now at the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Notes

·The Uffizi version is the larger and more dramatically powerful of Gentileschi's two Judith compositions.
·Compositional debt to Caravaggio's Judith and Holofernes (c.1598–1599, Palazzo Barberini) is well-documented; Gentileschi intensifies the physical struggle.
·The figure of Judith is often interpreted as a self-portrait; Abra (the maidservant) may represent Gentileschi's own maid.
·Previously disputed as possibly the work of her father Orazio Gentileschi; now firmly attributed to Artemisia by scholarly consensus.
·Entered the Uffizi collection in 1635.