Provenance

Reginald Herbert, 15th Earl of Pembroke

1880 - 1960

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Standing at the entrance of an open tent, a woman holds the severed head of a bearded man over a sack held open by another person in this vertical painting. All the people have pale, ivory-white skin. To our right, Judith, who holds the head, stands with her body angled to our left. She looks back over her shoulder, off to our right, with light brown eyes. She has a long nose, smooth cheeks, and her small, peach-tinged lips are closed. Tightly curled, amber-brown ringlets frame her oval face and fall to her shoulders. Her loose, pearl-white dress, which is almost the color of her skin, falls off one shoulder and is belted just below her bust. A long, ultramarine-blue cloth drapes over one shoulder and arm, and around her body. Open-toed, moss-green sandals peek out from beneath her hem. Her right hand, to our left, grasps a long, straight, iron blade by her hip. The blade has a ridge up along its center, and the tip is cut straight across. She holds up the severed head in her other hand, so that arm crosses her body. The severed head faces away from us so only a sliver of the nose, cheek, and one closed eye are visible. The head has chestnut-brown hair and beard, and the mouth is open wide. To our left, the attendant holding the sack looks down at the head, her face framed by a white cloth that wraps around her head, under her chin, and across her shoulders. She wears a canary-yellow tunic over silvery-gray pants. A red cape drapes over one shoulder and around her body. She is barefoot. The tent is supported by a wooden pole, just beyond and between the pair. The gold-edged, rose-pink flaps of the tent have been pulled back and tied to each side. The interior beyond them is dark but the end of a gold bed draped with white cloth and one bare foot, the sole coming toward us, emerges from the shadows, to our right of Judith. The ground beneath the tent is made of tan, roughly square stones, scattered with pebbles. The peak of the tent rises off the top center of the composition, and the area to each side is midnight blue.
Andrea Mantegna, Giulio Campagnola, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, c. 1495/1500, tempera on poplar panel, Widener Collection, 1942.9.42

Judith with the Head of Holofernes

Andrea Mantegna, Giulio Campagnola · c. 1495/1500 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1942.9.42

An older man and woman with exaggerated facial features are shown from the chest up as they face each other in profile in this horizontal drawing on tan paper. To our left, the woman has a protruding, deeply wrinkled face with a blunt nose, squinting eyes, and a dramatically downturned mouth. Loose folds of skin sag down her neck and chest. She wears a C-shaped headdress with a loosely drawn veil hanging down the back. A delicate flower sticks out of the ample, wrinkled decolletage encased in her low-cut bodice. The man opposite her has deep-set eyes over a long, hooked nose and a lumpy, potato-like chin jutting out from his craggy face. His hair is covered by a headdress with a padded brim. A long scarf drapes over his head and across his chest. His shoulders and back are suggested by a few short pen strokes.
Francesco Melzi, Two Grotesque Heads, 1510s?, pen and brown ink, Gift of Mrs. Edward Fowles, 1980.63.1

Two Grotesque Heads

Francesco Melzi · 1510s? · pen and brown ink ·  Accession ID  1980.63.1