Judith Slaying Holofernes

• Key facts:


  Title: Judith Slaying Holofernes

  Date: 1620

  Medium: oil on canvas

  Artist: Artemisia Gentileschi
• How does Gentileschi use light and tone to render the subject theatrically?

  • Tonal contrasts such as chiaroscuro and raking light to create a haunting and dramatic atmosphere and capture the viewers immediate attention and horror
  • Tenebrism creates a psychological void which focuses our attention on the murderous scene - capturing transient moment.
• Colour:


  • Red rivulets of blood trickle down the pallid white sheets - of which are in the immediate foreground
  • Red velvet draped over Holofernes signifies his doom and how his actions of besieging her city would meet a bloody end.
  • Golden damask of her dress could be symbolic of victory and courage.
• The dynamism of the style is reinforced formally with Judith's arms...


  • Judith and Abra's arms, like murderous arrows, are set on a diagonal which drives in from the right-hand side of the picture, leading us to the point of execution.
  • The diagonals of her arms lend movement and are balanced by Holofernes' less powerful legs - raised pitifully to the left.
• How does Judith's accomplice lead us to the point of death?

  On a central vertical axis, she leads us with her gaze and arms to complete a complex intersection of diagonals and pyramid formations; all converging at the point of Holofernes' slaying.
• The use of directional lighting...


  Illuminates the important elements of the scene and models the figures believable forms.
• The scene is enacted so close to the picture plane...

  Drawing the viewer unnervingly close to the action; we see his death a fraction before his killers do.
• The scale of the womens violent achievement is conveyed...


  in a single juxtaposition - the mighty fist of Holofernes takes on extensive proportion against the maids head.
• Penny Huntsman 


  "It's compositional dynamism, colour palette and lighting set it firmly apart from its Renaissance predecessors."
• Holofernes’s muscular body projects dynamically into the depicted space as bold areas of light and dark draw attention to his powerful limbs.
• Artemisia depicts two strong, young women working in unison, their sleeves rolled up, their gazes focused, their grips firm.
• The creases at her wrists clearly show the physical strength required. Holofernes struggles in vain, the thrust of his arms countered by the more forceful movement of Abra, Judith’s accomplice in this grisly act.
• The sword, here longer and held more vertically, prominently marks the painting’s central axis which extends from Abra’s arm to the blood that runs down the edge of the bed.


  This powerful visual axis reinforces the strength of the women and the violence of the deed. 
• Judith’s sword-clenching fist is at the very center of the composition; 


  imbued with divine strength, this widow’s hand is now the hand of God protecting the Israelites from their enemies.
• Context:


  • Artemisia was raped at the age of 17 by the artist Agostino Tassi, a close friend of her father. When Tassi failed to marry her, as the social dictates of the time demanded, her father sought recourse in court. 
  • During the trial, Artemisia describes her struggle against Tassi and her attempt to attack him with a knife.
  • She also recalls the sense of betrayal she felt when she realized her female chaperone had colluded with Tassi and arranged to leave the two alone.
• How Artemisia's own context is portrayed/contrasted

  • The first version of Judith Slaying Holofernes dates to this difficult period in the artist’s life. Especially significant is Artemisia’s portrayal of Abra as youthful, strong and fully engaged in the assisting Judith, in striking contrast to the chaperone who purposefully abandoned Artemisia in her hour of need.
  • In the Uffizi painting Artemisia adds a small detail that supports her identification with Judith.  One of the cameos on Judith’s bracelet appears to depict Artemis, the ancient goddess of both chastity and the hunt.
• Exemplifies proto-feminism