3-072-111 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Judith with the Head of Holofernes, between 1590-1595. Attributed to Lavinia Fontana on the basis of stylistic similarities, is the combination of an image of the Biblical heroine Judith with the painter's self-portrait. Judith's face seems to bear the features of the self-portrait of the artist, who lent her characteristic oblong face with a long nose to female characters in many other paintings containing religious and historical themes. Judith saved her city from destruction by the Assyrian army by killing its commander Holofernes. She is shown with a bloody sword in her hands and holding the head of the commander of the Assyrians by the hair. Fontana dressed her character in a contemporary costume with a lacy collar, pearls on the neck, with the hair arranged in the then fashionable style.