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Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
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Artemisia Gentileschi
Artemisia's father, Orazio, was also a Baroque artist mentored by Caravaggio
• Artemisia Gentileschi was the only female pupil of Caravaggio
• Unlike most female artists in the early modern period who tended to paint portraits, her focus was on biblical and mythological stories – something more typical of male artists
• She adapted the “flamboyant and dramatic style of Caravaggesque realism” (395)
• She followed the style’s preference for dark scenes lit with one internal light source
• Her art possessed a “female assertiveness” which was unusual for the Baroque period
• This quality was shown in her work as an “androgynous ideal” which can be seen in Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
• Depicts a scene from the apocryphal book of Judith from the Old Testament
• The central figure of the painting – Judith – is female, but possesses what would be considered a typically masculine strength
• The painting shows how Judith is a woman with the ability to plan and act as men do
• This depiction of Judith shows her as the heroic female ideal; she is able to have traits that are traditionally seen as male
The Story of Judith and Holofernes
The story describes how Judith saves the Jewish people of her city, Bethulia, by seducing Holofernes, an Assyrian general, getting him drunk, and decapitating him.