Judith and Holofernes
Andrea Mantegna·1495
Historical Context
Andrea Mantegna's Judith and Holofernes, painted around 1495, depicts the biblical heroine who saved her people by beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes. Now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, the painting treats the subject with the archaeological precision typical of Mantegna's late work. Judith was a popular subject in Renaissance art, celebrated as an exemplar of female courage and divine intervention, with particular political resonance in republican Florence.
Technical Analysis
Mantegna renders the dramatic scene with his trademark precise drawing and sculptural modeling, using the tent's dark interior as a dramatic foil for the figures and employing a near-monochrome palette that evokes classical relief sculpture.
