Judith Beheading Holofernes
| Support Type: | Canvas |
| Paint Type: | Oil Paint |
| Current Location: | Gli Uffizi, Florence |
| Location History: | The naturalistic "virility" of the representation provoked severe reactions when it was sent to Florence and denied the painting the honour of a privileged display in the Gallery. Indeed, only with great difficulty, and thanks to the intervention of her friend Galileo Galilei, did the painter eventually receive—after a considerable delay—the payment that had originally been agreed upon with Grand Duke Cosimo II de' Medici, who died in 1621, shortly after the completion of the large canvas. |
The artwork depicts the biblical episode in which Judith, a Jewish woman from Bethulia, beheads the cruel Assyrian general Holofernes. According to the Bible, Judith presented herself at the camp of the enemy army's commander, dressed in her finest clothes and pretending that she wished to ally herself with him; Holofernes, struck by her beauty, invited her to a lavish banquet in his tent, after which, drunk, he fell asleep in his bed, giving Judith the opportunity to take his scimitar and behead him. Afterwards, the heroine commented on her heroic act, which led to the liberation of the people of Israel from the siege of Nebuchadnezzar's army, saying: "God struck him down by the hand of a woman." Artemisia, the daughter of Orazio Gentileschi and a follower of the Caravaggesque school, chose to depict the most violent moment of the episode, that of the killing itself, without sparing gruesome details such as Holofernes' blood spurting onto Judith's chest. Accompanied by her faithful maidservant, Judith appears proud and almost "virile", presenting herself as an example of virtue and chastity, creating an overall effect that can be described as powerful yet disturbing, so much so that the painting was initially denied a prominent display in the Gallery.