Not knowing is killing me.

November 6, 2006 10:42 PM

Please help me name a painting. I have an old photocopy of a painting depicting a man being held on his back by two busty women. One of the women has a cloth wrapped around her head, and the other is slicing the man's neck open with a sword. What's it called? Who painted it?

I have no art-related vocabulary to describe it, aside from these:

- It is not abstract. The rendition is presumably faithful to reality.

- The word "Renaissance" pops into my head when I look at it, though I cannot tell you why.

The photocopy is extremely dark; I cannot make out a signature. There is no accompanying text on the photocopy.

posted by carsonb to media & arts (3 comments total)

It is almost certainly a depiction of Judith killing Holofernes. It could be the Caravaggio version, the Gentileschi version, or countless others. It is probably not this one (NSFW).
posted by Urban Hermit at 10:50 PM on November 6, 2006

thank you! it was the Gentileschi.
posted by carsonb at 10:53 PM on November 6, 2006

I feel kinda sheepish having a question answered so quickly and so definitively. thanks again, Urban Hermit.
posted by carsonb at 10:57 PM on November 6, 2006