Judith with the Head of Holofernes Cristofano Allori

Judith with the Head of Holofernes
Allori, Cristofano 17th century
From the collection of
Dulwich Picture Gallery
The Jewish heroine Judith holds the head of the enemy Assyrian commander, Holofernes, who she
has just decapitated in his drunken sleep. This painting is one of numerous copies after Allori’s celebrated image, in which the head of Holofernes is reputedly a self-portrait and the figure of Judith a portrait of ‘La Mazzafirra,’ the woman who was the focus of the artist’s unrequited love. The original painting is in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Details
Title: Judith with the Head of Holofernes
Date: 17th century
Physical Dimensions: w242 x h305 cm
Type: Painting
Medium: Oil
Work Nationality: Italian
Support: Copper
Provenance: London, Sir Francis Bourgeois, 1811; Bourgeois Bequest, 1811.
Further Information: Cristofano Allori (1577-1621) was an Italian portrait painter of the late Florentine Mannerist school. His most famous work is Judith with the Head of Holofernes. He made at least two versions of this work and several copies were made.
After: Allori, Cristofano
Acquisition Method: Bourgeois, Sir Peter Francis (Bequest, 1811)

Dulwich Picture Gallery
London, United Kingdom

Dulwich Picture Gallery is England’s first purpose-built public art gallery: it was founded in 1811 when Sir Francis Bourgeois RA bequeathed his collection of Old Master paintings “for the inspection of the public”. The Gallery was designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane and houses one of the country’s fi nest collections of Old Masters, especially rich in French, Italian and Spanish Baroque paintings and in British portraits from Tudor times to the nineteenth century.

Cristofano Allori
Oct 17, 1577 - Apr 1, 1621

Cristofano Allori was an Italian portrait painter of the late Florentine Mannerist school. Allori was born at Florence and received his first lessons in painting from his father, Alessandro Allori, but becoming dissatisfied with the hard anatomical drawing and cold coloring of the latter, he entered the studio of Gregorio Pagani, who was one of the leaders of the late Florentine school, which sought to unite the rich coloring of the Venetians with the Florentine attention to drawing. Allori also appears to have worked under Cigoli.
His pictures are distinguished by their close adherence to nature and the delicacy and technical perfection of their execution. His technical skill is shown by the fact that several copies he made of Correggio's works were thought to be duplicates by Correggio himself. His extreme fastidiousness limited the number of his works. Several examples are to be seen at Florence and elsewhere.
His most famous work, in his own day and now, is Judith with the Head of Holofernes. It exists in at least two versions by Allori, of which the prime version is perhaps that in the British Royal Collection, dated 1613, with various pentimenti.
http://hisour.com/art-medium/paintings/judith-with-the-head-of-holofernes-cristofano-allori/