Art in CONTEXT

The grisly subject portrayed in this candlelit scene was one of the most frequently painted by Italian Renaissance and Baroque artists. Derived from the apocryphal Book of Judith, the story describes a wise and attractive Jewish widow who contrives a plan to save her besieged city from the Assyrians. With her maid, Judith pretends to desert her town and visits the general Holofernes in his encampment. Invited to spend the night, Judith instead takes advantage of Holofernes' drunkenness and, while he sleeps, cuts off his head. Carlo Saraceni, who painted the scene many times, depicts the moment when Judith deposits the general's head into a bag held open by her maid. Judith manages to return to her city and, when Holofernes' head is displayed on the city walls, the Assyrians flee.

Saraceni exploits the story's drama not by showing explosive action, but by using dramatic chiaroscuro to illuminate the nighttime scene and suggest the tension of the moment. It was a technique that he and many others had learned from Caravaggio (1573 - 1610), a charismatic Roman painter who often employed sharp contrasts of light and dark to great effect. Although born in Venice, Saraceni had settled in Rome by 1598 and quickly began receiving commissions. In fact, it was Saraceni who was called upon to produce a more conventional substitute for Caravaggio's infamous Death of the Virgin (1606), which was painted for - but rejected by - the church of Santa Maria della Scala in Rome.

Eileen Carr

SUGGESTED READING:

Charles Dempsey, Keith Christiansen, Richard E. Spear, and Erich Scheier. The Age of Caravaggio. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985.

---

All content within Access Art is protected by copyright laws of the United States of America and may not be reproduced without the permission of The Dayton Art Institute.