Judith and Holofernes

The attribution to Lavinia Fontana was first confirmed by Maria Teresa Cantaro, who recognised this painting as another version of the composition in the Stuard Museum, Parma (see M.T. Cantaro, Lavinia Fontana bolognese "pittora singolare", Milan and Rome, 1989, p. 162, no. 4a.67, illustrated). There are some minor differences between the two pictures; notably that in this version the decapitated torso of Holofernes is partially concealed by the curtain on the left, and the bloody neck of the severed head is similarly hidden by the sack held by Judith's accomplice. Whether this slightly less bloodthirsty treatment was executed before or after the Parma version remains unclear, but both have been dated by Cantaro and Fortunati (loc.cit.) to circa 1595. Lavinia Fontana's stylistic range from the mid-1590s is broadly characterised by a certain tension between the mannerist style she had adopted from her father and teacher, Prospero Fontana, and her response to current developments within Bolognese painting at the time. As exemplified by the present canvas, she seems to have been particularly influenced by Denys Calvaert, whose work of around 1590 reveals his own familiarity with the painting of Federico Barocci.

Fortunati (loc. cit.) remarks on the overtly theatrical nature of the present composition, which is accentuated by Fontana's dramatic use of light and her realistic attention to detail. The artist has invested great prominence and beauty in the figure of Judith, and the similarity between her physiognomy and that of Fontana's own has led both Cantaro and Fortunati to suggest that she actually cast herself in the guise of Judith (compare her Self Portraits in the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca, Rome, and in the Uffizi, Florence).