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Judith and Holofernes
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Judith and Holofernes
Narciso
Saint Francis in meditation
La Fornarina
Portrait of Henry VIII
Portrait of Pope Urban VIII Barberini - Painting
Portrait of Stefano IV Colonna
The Triumph of Divine Providence and the fulfillment of its ends under the pontificate of Urban VIII
Square staircase
Helical staircase
Allegory of Divine Wisdom
Portable tabernacle with the Pietà, scenes of saints and martyrs
Baptism of Christ
St. Mary Magdalene
Portrait of Urban VIII
Portrait of Beatrice Cenci
Mystical marriage of Saint Catherine and saints
Stories of the Passion of Christ
Portrait of Abbondio Rezzonico
Annunciation
Portrait of Urban VIII - Sculpture
Madonna with Child (Madonna Hertz)
Deposition of Christ in the tomb
Mystical marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria
The suicide of Cleopatra
Portrait of Cardinal Antonio Barberini

Judith and Holofernes

Michelangelo Merisi, detto Caravaggio

Displayed in:

Barberini Palace

Barberini Palace

Via delle Quattro Fontane, 13 , Rome

Closed now: open at 10:00

Verified profile

Three characters and a red cloth in the background: few elements, capable of orchestrating a real theater of opposites. Dark and light, old age and youth, life and death, strength and fragility. Judith is an Old Testament heroine, a young Jewish widow who saves her people from the siege of the Assyrian army. She pretends to want to ally herself with the enemy and kills General Holofernes with her own hands, after being welcomed into the camp with a sumptuous banquet. Since the 1400s it has been a frequent iconography, but it had never been represented with such bloody spectacularity. Here the scimitar is in full thrust, there is energy in the hands and contracted limbs of Holofernes, but still for a little while. The general's mouth is wide open in a cry that is about to go out, the gush of blood has not yet exhausted its jet, as if Caravaggio had wanted to block the lightning-fast moments of an action, difficult to stop with a glance. The source of light is located at the top left and entirely engulfs the slender figure of Judith, with a frown, in an effort to draw back all her strength, physical and spiritual, for a gesture that she performs in spite of herself. The handmaid Abra, who in the original story is a young woman, becomes an old woman with a wrinkled face and hallucinated eyes, a spy for the horror that the observer feels in the face of such violence. The canvas, dated around 1599, is important from a stylistic and thematic point of view: it is the first true picture of Caravaggio's history and inaugurates the phase of strong contrasts between light and shadow. It was commissioned by the banker Ottavio Costa, who was so fond of it that he claimed in his will its inalienability. However, traces of the painting were lost for centuries, and it was found only in 1951 by the restorer Pico Cellini, almost by chance, in the family that owned it, and reported to the critic Roberto Longhi. A full blown coup de théâtre, in keeping with the theatricality of the picture. Twenty years later it was purchased by the state and exhibited at Palazzo Barberini.
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Details

Title: Judith and Holofernes

Author: Michelangelo Merisi, detto Caravaggio

Date: 1599 ca.

Technique: Oil painting on canvas

Displayed in: Barberini Palace

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