Judith slaying Holofernes In this painting I see two women over a man. It looks like one of them has a knife and they are stabbing the man in the neck. The other woman looks to be holding down the man that is being stabbed. The man is laying on the bed with a woman over him with a red dress on and a woman to his right with a blue dress on. The man has his hand on the woman in the blue dress’s face. It looks like he is trying to get her off of him. The woman above him is holding him down and the woman to the right is stabbing him in the neck.
The one doing the stabbing seems to take much delight in it, as well as the one who is holding him down. Both of the women look like they are struggling to hold down the man who is bigger than them. The man has a blue sheet wrapped around his waist and his chest is bare. The background of the painting is a brownish greenish color. The man is laying on a white sheet and there is blood dripping down the sheet because he has been stabbed in the neck. The painting I am describing is “Judith Slaying Holofernes. ” The two visual elements that I see in this painting are color and lines.
There are different colors in this painting. The first color that stands out to me is the blue and red in the women’s dresses. The woman who is doing the stabbing has on a blue dress and the woman who is holding the man down has on a red dress. The red color of the blood on the white sheet also stands out a lot in this picture. The background is a greenish color and the sheet around the man is white and also there is black cover on him. The color of their skin is a pale white color. The bed that he is in is a tan color. There are lines in this painting.
The knife is a line going into the man’s neck. There are curvy lines on the women’s dresses. There are also other lines like the curvy lines of the hat of the women in red. The two most obvious principles of design that I see in this painting are balance emphasis. This artwork contains balance because the artwork does not have a larger image in it. The balance is asymmetrical. It is all the same size and it is an easy piece of art to look at. The art is very easy to look at and there is not a large part of it that looks different than the other parts.
One part of the artwork does not overpower the other part of the artwork so it has balance. This artwork has emphasis because the colors of the women’s dresses stand out in the painting and also the blood pouring down the man’s neck. The color of the dresses makes me look at the women first and then I see what it is that they are doing. After I look at the women I see that they are struggling to do something and I see the man that they are hurting and the blood running down his neck. I see that they are killing a man. This painting “Judith Slaying Holofernes. was done in the 17th century by the Italian artist Artemisia Gentileschi (c. 1612–13; c. 1620). She is considered one of the most accomplished painters in the generation after Caravaggio. The artist was a painter by family tradition and she was also a victim of rape. She had an overwhelming determination to spread her intuitions through art. The painting was a personal one. Artemisia was raped by her mentor Tassi and so she drew herself as Judith and Tassi as Holofernes. Artemisia was born in Rome in 1593. This painting was based on the feelings that the artist had after she was raped by her mentor. “Gentileschi, Artemisia. ” 1) When I first saw this painting I saw a man being killed. I did not know why this man was being killed. All I could see was a woman holding down a man and another woman stabbing him. I did not know the reason but after doing research I then found out why. The artist was raped and then she made this painting from her emotions. I cannot imagine what she went through. I feel that this painting has a lot of pain in it. The artist went through a very sad and horrible experience that no one should have to ever go through.
I really do like this artwork even though it is a dark painting. I think that the artist is a very talented one. She did a great job on every part of this painting. It looks nice and you can really feel the emotion of the two women through the painting. She really does express herself. It is a very dark painting but it is still a great work of art. Works Cited “Gentileschi, Artemisia. ” Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Library Edition. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. , 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.
