JUDITH WITH THE HEAD HOLOFERNES

Judith with the Head Holofernes



Judith with the Head Holofernes

'Judith with the Head of Holofernes' is a painting in oil on panel transferred to canvas (144x68 cm) of Giorgione, dating back to 1600 or so and kept in Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

It is the story of a Hebrew widow, Judith, daughter of Merari, during the war of Israel against the Babylonian army, erroneously called Assyrian. With fine features, high education, great piety, religious zeal and patriotic passion, Judith discovers that General invading Holofernes, has taken with her. Accompanied by her maid, the widow down their walled city besieged by the army abroad - Bethulia - and deceive the military into believing she was really in love with him, get access to its tent. When Holofernes falls asleep, Judith beheads him, sowing confusion in the army of Babylon and thereby obtaining the victory for Israel.

The work has an uncertain date, which ranges from the late sixteenth century and 1700, but it is one of the cornerstones of the first juvenile stage of Giorgione, that is, one of the few works of the Venetian master of the critics agree attribution. The iconography of Judith, the biblical heroine, was then new to Venice, with the exception of some achievements in sculpture from the late sixteenth century. The work came to St. Petersburg in 1772, with purchases on the Paris market by the envoys of Catherine II of Russia. Before, it was in the collection of Baron Crozat de Tierra LA. At the end of the nineteenth century, the painted layer was transferred to canvas, the deterioration of the natural support, which was the door of a cabinet (Salomon, 33).

Pietro Dandini (Florence, April 12 1646 - 1712), was an Italian painter. Nephew of the painter, Vincenzo Dandini, and a member of a family of artists, Peter Dandini was among the most active painters in Florence during the Baroque period. His works are found in many churches in the city, like San Frediano (frescoes in the chapel of San Bernardo), San Jacopo Soprarno (frescoes in the vault), St. John Piarist (frescoes in the lunettes), Santa Maria Maddalena de 'Pazzi (fresco of the dome Main Chapel with 'The Rise of Santa Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi with all the saints of Florence, 1701 ), Santa Maria Maggiore , St. John Knights (shovel with the Beheading of John the Baptist), in the former convent of San Francesco de 'Macci.

Other works are at the Palazzo Corsini, the Villa La Petraia (frescoes in the Cappella Nuova) and Villa Bellavista near Pistoia (frescoes) in Pisa is a shovel at the Church of St. Catherine of Alexandria; in Prato a shovel of God Father and the Holy Sanctuary of the Madonna del Giglio; to Win an Adoration of the Magi in the Church of Santa Croce.

For the Hearing Officer Philip Lights Dandini painted the Battle of Vienna described with great enthusiasm by Francesco Saverio Baldinucci, but the big picture property of the lights have ...