Judith with the Head of Holofernes

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Andrea Mantegna , Italian, 1430/31-1506

Title

Datec.1495-1500

MediumTempera on linen

Dimensions

48.1 x 36.7 cm

Credit LinePurchased, 1896

Object numberNGI.442

DescriptionDrawing from an account in the Old Testament, Mantegna here illustrates the moment after Judith, a young Jewish woman, has beheaded Holofernes, an Assyrian general who had laid siege to her hometown, Bethulia. With a calm and dignified manner, Judith places Holoferne’s head carefully into a bag, aided by her maid. This small picture reveals Mantegna’s fascination with antique sculpture: using a technique known as grisaille, he creates the impression that the painting was carved out of stone and set against marble.

Unusually, Mantegna depicts Judith’s maidservant here as a person of colour. While the Bible makes no mention of the ethnicity of Judith’s accomplice, it identifies her position using the term abra, a Latin word meaning handmaiden. Mantegna’s choice of model here was influenced by his time as a court painter to the Gonzaga family in Mantua, a household known to have employed African servants and slaves, often as attendants to Isabella d'Este.

The maidservant’s centrality in this composition points to her key role in Judith’s quest. According to the biblical account, the two women worked together to defeat the invading general, Holofernes. It is thought that a member of the Gonzaga family may have commissioned this as part of a series depicting powerful women.

ProvenancePurchased, Italy, the Hon. Lewis Wingfield, 1842-1891; John Malcolm of Poltalloch; Lord Malcolm of Poltalloch, 1893; purchased, Lord Malcolm of Poltalloch per P. & D. Colnaghi, London, 1896 Exhibition HistoryWinter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1902

Exhibition of Italian Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1930

Andrea Mantegna, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua, 1961

Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964

Old Masters and the Bible, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1965

Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Ireland, National Gallery, London, 1985

Andrea Mantegna, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 17 January - 5 April 1992

Master European Paintings from the National Gallery of Ireland, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 6 June - 9 August 1992; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, 19 September - 6 December 1992; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 13 January - 28 March 1993; IBM Gallery, New York, 27 April - 26 June 1993

Mantegna a Mantova 1460-1506: Mantegna and the Classical Tradition, Fruttiere Palazzo Te, Mantua, 16 September 2006 - 14 January 2007

Andrea Mantegna, 1431-1506, Musee du Louvre, Paris, 22 September 2008 - 5 January 2009

Shades of Grey: Painting without Colour, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 22 June - 29 September
Label Text
In the Old Testament, Judith was a Hebrew woman whose hometown was besieged by the Assyrians. She pretended to be a traitor to her own people, and befriended the Assyrian leader Holofernes. Then, while he slept, Judith decapitated Holofernes with his own sword. She is shown placing the severed head in a sack held by her maid; the victim’s foot is visible on the bed behind her. Mantegna, a northern Italian painter, used varying tones of grey, yellow and purple to paint this scene. This technique, called grisaille, created an illusion that the painting was carved out of marble.