25 Judiths and the Head of Holofernes

Inkjet Print
Edition of 5
2018
12″ x 24″

Considered by some to be the first historical novel, the deuterocanonical, ‘Book of Judith’ (appearing in the Catholic but not modern Hebrew bible), tells of Judith beheading Holofernes, and therefore allowing Israel to counter-attack the Assyrians. There has been a long history of the depiction of this moment of beheading in oil painting. On the left are 25 faces of Judith painted by artists from Caravaggio to Klimt. On the right is the head of Holofernes, from one specific 17th century painting by Nuvolone.