Judith Beheading Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi

This work by Italian artist depicts a scene from the biblical story of Judith and Holofernes. In this story, Judith, a widow, beheads Holofernes, who planned to destroy her home city. This scene was commonly depicted by artists during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. However, Gentileschi’s painting holds a more personal significance. This mysterious work is a self portrait of the artist as Judith, referring to her rape by Agostino Tassi, a colleague of her father. After the assault, Gentileschi claimed that she held a knife towards Tassi and told him that she wanted to kill him for dishonoring her. In Gentileschi’s painting, Judith wears a bracelet depicting Artemis, a Goddess who protected her virginity at all costs and even killed those who attempted to assault her. A final haunting element of the image is that some viewers perceive Tassi’s death as a rebirth.