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Judith Slaying Holofernes Analysis

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Artemisia Gentileschi's depiction of “Judith slaying Holofernes” is my favorite over Caravaggio's “Judith beheading Holofernes” because of the absolute bloodletting portrayed in her own version. In my own opinion, Artemisia Gentileschi's “Judith slaying Holofernes” is the most powerful Baroque painting considering Gentileschi's dark past. Allow me to provide such back story of this woman, and her undeniable genius. Artemisia Gentileschi had been born July 8th, of 1593. She had been an accomplished Baroque painter, despite her being a female painter in the 1600's. She was actually the first woman to become a full member of the Accademia di Arte Del Disegno in Florence. She later died in 1656.
A common theme in which Artemisia Gentileschi's paintings are mostly women in a struggle; often strong women, suffering women. Why? Oh that's the beautiful part. Beautiful only in the sense of what she made of herself because of what happened. Don't get me twisted, what happened to her is absolutely tragic. Artemisia Gentileschi had been raped, just as her subject in “Judith Slaying Holofernes” had been. ALSO, Gentileschi had prosecuted the rapist, just as her subject did so in her painting. …show more content…

In this painting, which is oil on canvas, Judith is severing Holofernes head in good reason. In the biblical story, the Book of Judish tells of how Judith was stripped of her clothes and raped by Holofernes, whom was the Assyrian General. Judith later gets Holofernes drunk, and enticed him to bed. Only to execute her revenge. By cutting Holofernes's HEAD

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"So as to allure the eyes of all men that should see her" (Judith 10:4). Judith is adorned in a contemporary costume and rests her arm on the severed head of Holofernes, the enemy of her people. Lucas Cranach the Elder, as mentioned earlier, painted at least eight Judith's, all similar with the composition of the heroine but with some minor changes in appearance, for example, Lucas Cranach has revealed a long-haired heroine with her hand on top of the dismantled head of Holofernes whilst holding the sword she used to remove the threat of her people. All eight Judith’s are clothed in a fantastically elaborate costumes that accentuates the heroine’s figure, this is also a characteristic of Cranach's mannerism. Here, Cranach represented Judith

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From the painting I deduce that Judith might have killed Holofermes with the sword and that Maidservant is helping Judith hide the body. I can as well infer that Holofermes might have been Judith servant because of the white headscarves in his head similar to the Maidservant scarf. The faces of who I concluded to be Judith seems kind of angry and annoyed while the face of Maidservant seems worried. Even though there no visible blood in the sword I believe that 's the weapon that was used against Holofermes.

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Judith and her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes Judith and her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes, by Orazio Gentileschi, is a 17th-century oil painting located in the Wadsworth Museum of Art. The painting depicts the moment after the biblical heroine, Judith, kills an invading Assyrian general, Holofernes, to save the city of Bethulia. Judith agrees to dine with Holofernes in the privacy of his tent and after taking advantage of his drunkenness she beheads him with his own sword (Branch). Gentileschi shows Judith and her maidservant, Abra, quickly escaping the scene with the decapitated head and sword cradled between them in a woven basket. The maidservant, dressed in a white headdress and blue gown, is in the process

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Continuing into the Baroque era, portrayals of Judith were exaggerated and dramatized. Gentileschi’s oil painting created in 1614, Judith Slaying Holofernes, displays the gruesome story in a graphic and dark manner (Uffizi). Heavily influenced by Caravaggio, Gentileschi paints the scene of Judith during the slaying of Holofernes. Unlike the work of past artists and her current male counterparts, Gentileschi shows no mercy or fragility in Judith. While Caravaggio’s Judith recoils from her horrific task, Gentileschi’s Judith does not flinch; she braces herself on the bed and pulls the large sword through Holofernes neck (Khanacademy.org).

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Looking into her biography, Artemisia Gentileschi was a well-known figure and one of the first female artists to pursue a profession on the same terms as men. Her work is often overshadowed by the contradictory narratives that contained her. Gentileschi painted in the same style of Caravaggio, revealing her art with powerful stage lighting to intensify effects of emotional drama. I read that her figures were mostly heroic women drawn from history, and religious subject matter, including Cleopatra, Lucretia, and Mary Magdalene, often depicted nude and desirous. Going through all of her paintings, there is one that I am intrigued by called Corsica and the Satyr.

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Judith’s assassination of Holofernes is a tale that appears to have captivated a number of artists during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The story originates from the Book of Judith of the Old Testament, and tells the story of the titular widowed heroine from the Jewish city of Bethulia, whose home was besieged by the Assyrian Army. In an effort to save her people and her home, Judith snuck into the enemy camp and managed to decapitate general Holofernes, who was infatuated with Judith and had passed out from drunkenness while in her company. A number of artists, including Donatello, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt, have used this story as a subject in their work.

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I. Introduction- Thesis Artemisia Gentileschi creative talent has led her to place the events of her lifetime on canvas, as she stood on the border between two worlds, that of an artist and woman. A. Subtopic #1 Artemisia’s life had many challenges not just because she was a women

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