The exhibition “Caravaggio and Artemisia – The challenge of Judith” exhibits the canvases that were painted on the theme of Judith and Holofernes, a biblical episode of great impact between the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
If the pivotal work is the Caravaggesque one preserved in Palazzo Barberini, the intent of the exhibition is not to celebrate its undoubted qualities but to make it dialogue with other works that, in different contexts and phases, have indirectly or directly confronted the Giuditta di Caravaggio.
And among these the work, indeed the works, of Artemisia Gentileschi certainly stands out, not only for what they convey from the Caravaggesque lesson, but also for the connections and allusions aroused between the personal stories of the artist, the biblical heroine, and more generally, the events of an era certainly not characterized by social peace and justice for women, events to which painters were certainly no strangers.
In this sense, the Judith who beheads Holofernes appears as a ransom, a blow pondered to put an end to decisions only suffered and to the damage, even physical, of women.
Until March 27, 2022 at Palazzo Barberini, Rome
