Judit decapitating Holofernes (Gentileschi, Florence)

Judit beheading Holofernes is a painting by the Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi. It was executed around 1613. It is an oil painting on canvas, measuring 1.99 meters high and 1.62 meters. wide. It is currently preserved in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence (Italy).

The subject of Judith beheading Holofernes is one of the Old Testament episodes most frequently depicted in the history of art. However, with the exception of Caravaggio's Judit and Holofernes preserved in the National Gallery of Ancient Art of Rome, it has never been possible to represent such a crude and dramatic scene as the painting in this canvas Artemisia Gentileschi.

The biblical heroine, with her maiden, enters the enemy camp, seduces and then beheaded Holofernes, the fierce enemy general.

This painting is the most famous of Artemisia Gentileschi, with which his name is quickly associated. The subject is perfectly analogous to another canvas, smaller and of different colors, executed previously and that is conserved in the Museum of Capodimonte of Naples: another Judit decapitating to Holofernes.

The act of decapitation occupies the center of the scene. The composition is of triangular type, and for this it has been necessary to locate inside the tent the maiden, that in principle according to the traditional history alone they were Judith and Holofernes.

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