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Source Description
According to the Book of Judith, the Jewish widow Judith saved the Israelites from the Assyrians by decapitating their general Holofernes, whose army had besieged her city. She did this after having made him drunk at a banquet. Judith is commonly depicted as being assisted by an older maidservant in placing the head in a sack. The contrast between Holofernes's crude features and the heroine's beauty underlines the moral message of the eventual triumph of virtue over evil.The Bolognese painter Elisabetta Sirani based her style on that of Guido Reni (1575-1642), who was admired for his idealized depictions of women, as in his Penitent Magdalene (Walters 37.2631). This painting is close to her style but it also appears to owe something to that of her father Giovanni Andrea Sirani.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
9874
label
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
9874
sourceUrl
contentType
drawing
stage
normalized
title
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
description
According to the Book of Judith, the Jewish widow Judith saved the Israelites from the Assyrians by decapitating their general Holofernes, whose army had besieged her city. She did this after having made him drunk at a banquet. Judith is commonly depicted as being assisted by an older maidservant in placing the head in a sack. The contrast between Holofernes's crude features and the heroine's beauty underlines the moral message of the eventual triumph of virtue over evil.The Bolognese painter Elisabetta Sirani based her style on that of Guido Reni (1575-1642), who was admired for his idealized depictions of women, as in his Penitent Magdalene (Walters 37.2631). This painting is close to her style but it also appears to owe something to that of her father Giovanni Andrea Sirani.
provenance
Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1897 catalogue: no. 515, as Ferbis]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
1638-1665 (Baroque)
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Painting & Drawing
oil paintings (visual works)
imageCount
1
pageCount
1
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
129.5
height
91.7
dimensionsRaw
Painted surface H: 51 x W: 36 1/8 in. (129.5 x 91.7 cm)
Source extras
med
oil on canvas
creator_ids
17724
3958
collection_ids
BAR
exhibition_ids
1994
116
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
010aa1237f09be43