(soft music)
- [Man] We're in the Detroit Institute of Art,
looking at Judith and her Maidservant
with the Head of Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi.
- [Woman] This story comes from the book of Judith,
which is included
in the Catholic version of the Old Testament,
but not considered part of the canonical books
of the Jewish Bible.
But it's a great story.
- [Man] The town of Bethulia has been under siege
by the Assyrian army for weeks.
Bethulia is strategically important
because it lies on the path to Jerusalem.
Lack of water and provisions have caused the town
to ready itself to capitulate.
But before it does, Judith steps forward.
And she uses her beauty and her eloquence
to open the gates of the town,
allowing her to move out with her maidservant.
She's almost immediately captured by the Assyrians.
And she's able to make her way
to the camp of the Assyrian general, Holofernes.
- [Woman] Judith is a widow.
And so she's hast off her widow's clothing
for a beautiful dress and jewelry.
So she can make herself very attractive
to the leader of the Assyrian army, to Holofernes.
Judith convinces Holofernes
that she can help him to capture the town of Bethulia.
They drink, they feast, they celebrate.
Holofernes gets drunk.
Judith takes his sword and cuts off his head,
brings it back to Bethulia
to show the town that she has saved her people.
- [Man] This is the moment immediately after the beheading.
Judith holds the sword still dripping with blood.
The maidservant is stuffing the head into a bag.
And Judith shields her eyes from the candle light
so that she can look out.
- [Woman] She's heard a sound.
This could potentially be a moment of danger.
And so they both look up
concerned about what's about to happen.
And whether there'll be caught.
- [Man] This is a Baroque painting.
And it displays so many characteristics
that we associate with that style.
We have a single source of light, the candle.
Deep shadows surrounding the figures,
creating this theatrical drama.
- [Woman] And the figures are so close to us.
There's no real architecture in the background.
We just have this red curtain that's been drawn up.
That's typical of Baroque art.
So, all of this drama unfolding in our space,
thanks to Gentileschi's use of foreshortening.
The maid's elbow presses out into our space.
Both of Judith's arms are somewhat foreshortened
as they cross in front of her body.
Even the corner of that table that holds the armor,
the scabbard and the candle protrudes into our space.
Breaking down the separation that typically exists
between a work of art and the world of the viewer.
- [Man] Their attention is outside of the canvas
at a place that we can't see
as if they're looking beyond the door of the tent.
But look at the arches that cascade down from the upper left
to the lower right of the canvas.
First, the arch of the shadow
that seems to almost mask Judith's face
echoed by the arch of her arm, the arch of the sword
and then the arch of the maidservant's arm.
- [Woman] That series of arching shapes creates a diagonal
that moves from the upper left to the lower right.
And that use of diagonals
is something that's very typical in Baroque art.
Diagonals create a sense of energy and movement.
So, we have a sense of a caught moment in time.
- [Man] But here the diagonal is slowed down.
We don't see a diagonal with the velocity
that we might see for example, in a Rubens.
Instead, those arches slower our eye down
as we move through the canvas
and accentuate the idea that both of these figures
even in this moment of action have stopped.
This is moment of stillness
as they look to see if the coast is clear,
if they're in danger.
- [Woman] It's a compelling sense of stillness
combined with the effects of violence.
Because we have that sword
right in the middle of the composition,
which is dripping with blood.
Our eye moves down to the head of Holofernes
and we see a lot on the cloth.
We see blood on the hands of the maidservant.
This caught moment of this incredibly violent act.
But a violent act, which saves the Israelites
and which is performed with the help of God.
- [Man] One of the words that's used to describe paintings
like this is tenebroso,
which in English translation means in the dark manner.
And really what we're talking about
is a kind of extreme rendering of chiaroscuro.
- [Woman] Where the lights are very light
and the shadows are very dark.
And so, there's a sense almost of a theatrical spotlighting
on these figures who are embedded in the darkness.
- [Man] The three primary colors are evident.
We have the red of the curtain above
and subtly of the blood dripping from the sword,
the blues and purples of the maidservant.
And then the brilliant gold,
the brilliant yellow of Judith
who's shown here as this heroine that saves her people.
- [Woman] And that red of the curtain
is picked up on a little tie
around the bottom of the white headdress
worn by the maidservant.
So, this glowing colors here in this beautiful painting
by Gentileschi.
(soft music)