Food for thought and also for vultures
Bloody beheadings abound in Baroque paintings. There are enough of these severed heads, and there is enough scholarship about them to fill books and semesters. Here are just some of these gruesome paintings:
Artemisia Gentileschi - Judith Slaying Holofernes
Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith and Holofernes paintings are of the first to mind when it comes to Baroque beheadings. She painted two similar versions of this composition (one in 1613 and one in 1621), and both echo Carravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes of 1602. Her Judith paintings are of action and blood. A lot of Blood. Judith and her maid are strong, efficient and confident as they take care of the general who is poised to destroy their home city. Hers are two good examples of these badass Baroque characters.
Bloody beheadings abound in Baroque paintings. There are enough of these severed heads, and there is enough scholarship about them to fill books and semesters. Here are just some of these gruesome paintings:
Artemisia Gentileschi - Judith Slaying Holofernes
Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith and Holofernes paintings are of the first to mind when it comes to Baroque beheadings. She painted two similar versions of this composition (one in 1613 and one in 1621), and both echo Carravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes of 1602. Her Judith paintings are of action and blood. A lot of Blood. Judith and her maid are strong, efficient and confident as they take care of the general who is poised to destroy their home city. Hers are two good examples of these badass Baroque characters.
Mattia Preti - Feast of Herod
Mattia Preti’s painting of Judith and Holofernes is also perfectly gruesome, but his Feast of Herod has the beautiful bizarreness of a Peter Greenaway scene. From the simple foreshortened table setting, to the dark curtain encompassing the right third of the composition, to the pike that hatchets its way in from the left, this painting is sinister and delicious
Mattia Preti’s painting of Judith and Holofernes is also perfectly gruesome, but his Feast of Herod has the beautiful bizarreness of a Peter Greenaway scene. From the simple foreshortened table setting, to the dark curtain encompassing the right third of the composition, to the pike that hatchets its way in from the left, this painting is sinister and delicious
Andrea Vaccaro - Triumph of David
Lilting and lyrical, this painting feels like a dream. It drifts, ripples, and wells with alluring painterly music. You can practically hear Barbara Strozzi’s Mentita.
Lilting and lyrical, this painting feels like a dream. It drifts, ripples, and wells with alluring painterly music. You can practically hear Barbara Strozzi’s Mentita.
Pietro Novelli - David with the Head of Goliath
Hey, so what, I chopped his head?
Caravaggio is a great painter of severed heads. Goliath’s dead skin and dead expression put to mind a bit from Heart of Darkness in which Marlow discovers a group of human heads chopped and mounted on stakes,
“These round knobs were not ornamental but symbolic; they were expressive and puzzling, striking and disturbing – food for thought and also for vultures.”
Caravaggio - David with the Head of Goliath
Another of Caravaggio’s magnificent decapitations. Man, that's a cool painting!
Caravaggio - Testa di Medusa
Jacopo Vignali - Sampson and Delila
Well, this is actually a be-hairing, and not a beheading. Jacopo Vignali painted a couple Davids with Goliaths’ severed head. But, I like his Sampson and Delilah. He used a similar composition to this in his Jael and Sisera, and his Rinaldo and Armida, but I like the tension he pianted into Sampson’s neck. With the odd flatness of the other figures, and Delilah’s cold smile it makes for a truly weird picture.
Well, this is actually a be-hairing, and not a beheading. Jacopo Vignali painted a couple Davids with Goliaths’ severed head. But, I like his Sampson and Delilah. He used a similar composition to this in his Jael and Sisera, and his Rinaldo and Armida, but I like the tension he pianted into Sampson’s neck. With the odd flatness of the other figures, and Delilah’s cold smile it makes for a truly weird picture.
Orazio Gentileschi - Judith and her maidservant with the head of holofernes
With some nerved and rosy cheeks, and some exquisitely rendered garments, this painting bids you into the scene without hesitation. Oh, just a head in a basket…nothing to see here…good thing I wore a red dress, blood is getting everywhere…
With some nerved and rosy cheeks, and some exquisitely rendered garments, this painting bids you into the scene without hesitation. Oh, just a head in a basket…nothing to see here…good thing I wore a red dress, blood is getting everywhere…
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Titian - Salome with the Head of John the Baptist
Titian - Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
Salome with the head of John the Baptist, or Judith with the head of Holofernes? Take your pick.
Titian - Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
Salome with the head of John the Baptist, or Judith with the head of Holofernes? Take your pick.
Jusepe de Ribera - Capeza de San Juan Bautista
Another delicious one. Jusepe Ribera made several severed head pictures. His Cabeza de San Juan Bautista is gory and real, like a scene from Apocalypse Now or Blood Meridian. The sword, and bloody rag are top notch. As usual for Ribera, this painting has perfection.
Another delicious one. Jusepe Ribera made several severed head pictures. His Cabeza de San Juan Bautista is gory and real, like a scene from Apocalypse Now or Blood Meridian. The sword, and bloody rag are top notch. As usual for Ribera, this painting has perfection.
Simon Vouet - Judith
French painter Simon Vouet was an extensively successful painter of the Baroque era. He was from a family of painters, and was married to the painter Virginia da Vezzo, who’s most prominent painting is also a painting of Judith with the head of Holofernes. Virginia was known for her beauty, and modeled for many of her husband’s paintings. He painted his wife as Judith in a couple paintings. She is beautiful, but it's her intangible emotion that draws me in. She is sly, but sad. She is depicted in a moment of heroism for her homeland, but also she shows the weight of consequence she bears… Well, give it a look, it’s all in the painting. He painted it far better than I can hope to write it.
French painter Simon Vouet was an extensively successful painter of the Baroque era. He was from a family of painters, and was married to the painter Virginia da Vezzo, who’s most prominent painting is also a painting of Judith with the head of Holofernes. Virginia was known for her beauty, and modeled for many of her husband’s paintings. He painted his wife as Judith in a couple paintings. She is beautiful, but it's her intangible emotion that draws me in. She is sly, but sad. She is depicted in a moment of heroism for her homeland, but also she shows the weight of consequence she bears… Well, give it a look, it’s all in the painting. He painted it far better than I can hope to write it.