Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes, c. 1623-25, oil on canvas, 187.2 x 142 cm (Detroit Institute of Arts) A conversation with Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris
i was thinking about Caravaggio even as you spoke BUT .. i am very interested in high chiaroscuro Female Driven Narratives because i am living in one .. Great post BTW :]
As a rank amateur, I greatly appreciate the variety of SmARTHistory's videos, especially the attention to detail and symbolism. Have you explained the difference between Baroque art and Counter-Reformation art?
Thank you. We see the art of the Counter-Reformation as a part of the larger Baroque as it is traditionally defined but of course stylistic categories are never satisfactory. We do deal with these issues in one of the last of our four-part video series on the Reformation as well as those videos and essays that treat the churches of 17th-century Rome smarthistory.org/europe-1300-1800/baroque/baroque-art-italy/
@@smarthistory-art-history thank you for the explanation. I viewed an exhibit at Palazzo Strozzi on Pontormo. The explanatory text identified his works as exemplars of Counter-Reformation. I frankly failed to discern a tremendous difference between his compositions and those of Renaissance artists. And his pastel palette was the exact opposite of Caravaggio and Gentileschi's dramatically-lit scenes of violence and ecstasy.
Have you guys covered Artemisia’s Susanna and the Elders? I would love to see/hear that. Her version of that moment in that biblical story is one of the only ones I’ve seen that gives justice to Susanna
IIRC there are a couple of other Gentileschi paintings on the same Biblical story. The one which shows Judith at the act of beheading Holofernes makes a nice comparative study piece with Carravagio's beheading painting in terms of female expressions, the female body, the relationship between Judith and the maid, their respective ages, and so on and on
Yeah, everyone thinks it's ~staff and sheep Jesus~, but the Lord will call His faithful ones to war, too. lol. I appreciated the detail about the three dark arcs and wonder how intentional that was when she was planning this out...
The technical aspects of this painting are marvelous. But IMO the painting fails on two important aspects: * Judith, who is the protagonist of the story, is almost completely obscured, while the unnamed servant is vibrant * Judith's sword appears to be imminently beheading the servant, not Holofernes - whose head is almost unrecognizable, at least in the photo that accompanies this video.
