Marco San Martino
Italian, 1615/25-1680/1700
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
INV-2184
Marco San Martino
Italian, 1615/25-1680/1700n.d.
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
Marco San Martino Italian, 1615/25-1680/1700 →engravingpaper
Date
n.d.
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 19.2 × 15 cm (7 9/16 × 5 15/16 in.); Sheet: 21.2 × 16.3 cm (8 3/8 × 6 7/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
The Amanda S. Johnson and Marion J. Livingston Fund
This wiry, animated etching of the moment just after Judith has decapitated Holofernes was produced by Marco San Martino, a little-known painter and printmaker of the Italian Baroque. The image draws much of its strength from its contrasts: Judith’s exposed breast and the bed-curtain emphasize her seductiveness, while her drawn sword reinforces her violent efficiency. Voids above the decapitated general’s body and beneath his dangling left arm evoke his disorienting inebriation and subsequent, violent end. Enveloped in her swirling robes, Judith has Holofernes’s head well in hand and is ready for the swift journey to her home, Bethulia, where she was rightly welcomed as a hero.