Giuditta e Oloferne, 1979
GPO-0413
Judith and Holofernes
Pencil and collage on reversed canvas, mounted on a primed canvas, photo enlargement
200 x 162.5 cm
Rizziero Di Sabatino Collection, Pescara
The work made for a group show devoted to Artemisia Gentileschi is inspired by her painting entitled Giuditta e Oloferne (ca. 1620). On the overturned canvas applied at the centre of a large canvas propped up against the wall is a life-size pencil drawing of Judith's hands as she decapitates Holofernes. The profile of the sword is interrupted by a collage of torn fragments from a reproduction of Gentileschis’s painting, which in part overflows onto the larger canvas, while the remaining part of the image lies rolled up on the ground as if to attest to its "decapitation".
Artemisia Gentileschi, Giuditta e Oloferne, c. 1612, oil on canvas, 158.8 x 125.5 cm, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples.
| 1979-80 | Paris, Galerie Yvon Lambert, Artemisia, December, touring to: New York, Paula Cooper Gallery, March-April, 1980; Rome, Galleria Ugo Ferranti, from 23 May 1980; London, Institute of Contemporary Arts, 14 August - 21 September 1980, cited in the checklist of exhibited works p. 147, not repr. |
| • | M. Disch, Giulio Paolini. Catalogo ragionato 1960-1999, vol. 1 (Milan: Skira editore, 2008), cat. no. 413 p. 421, repr. |
