Judith Victorious, Ambrosius Benson (Lombardy, circa 1495 – Bruges, 1550) Workshop/follower

Ambrogio Benzone, or Ambrosius Benson in Flemish
(Lombardy, around 1495 – Bruges, 1550)
Shop/Follower

Judith Victorious

Oil painting on canvas
97 x 77 cm. – In antique frame 114 x 92 cm.

Full details of the work (click HERE)

The work illustrates a fascinating portrait of the heroine Judith: alone and victorious at the centre of the painting, the woman is depicted without clothes but with precious ornaments and jewels, the sword still proudly gripped in one hand and the head of Holofernes shown in the other.

This iconographic subject was much loved during the Renaissance period, especially in the Nordic countries (see the series created on the theme by Lucas Cranach), as it lent itself to the taste of the time for the representation of strong, often fatal passions, while at the same time embodying great moral values.

In particular, it is the biblical episode of the killing of the Babylonian general Holofernes by the beautiful and courageous Jewish widow Judith, to free her people from foreign domination. Her cunning plan consists in being welcomed into the enemy camp by pretending to want to ally herself: her intelligence combined with her extraordinary beauty act as a pass. Following a rich banquet organized in her honor, she takes advantage of the sleep of the tyrant exhausted by alcohol to kill him.

There is an evident discrepancy between the pleased composure for the success achieved, the grace and calm of the woman with the severed head in the foreground: the drama is there, but it is as if put into the background by the author who here preferred to highlight the heroine rather than the fact itself, focusing attention and our gaze on the virtues of Judith, who through her courage managed to defeat evil.

The representation is therefore symbolic: despite the atrocious act in which she is the protagonist, Judith embodies great moral values. Presented as a symbol of salvation that God offers to the Jewish people, she also becomes an emblem of the Church itself and of its salvific role, emphasized by the ethereal white of her complexion, which evokes purity.

According to the iconography spread north of the Alps from the 15th century onwards, despite her heroic conduct, the image of Judith is at the same time often compared to that of a mere seductress. We understand this from the transparencies and the choice to depict her without clothes, from the precious necklace artfully placed between her breasts: in the biblical text, Judith's beauty is in fact underlined as a determining element for the success of the enterprise, accompanied by other qualities of intelligence and wisdom.

Worthy of mention are the details with which the jewels she wears are rendered, which highlight her beauty, such as the jeweled chain that serves to support the cloak covered in precious stones and pearls, as well as the tiara that encircles her hair, the bracelets, and even the hilt of the sword, finished with anthropomorphic heads.

The painting, chronologically datable to around the end of the 16th century, with its bold colours and chiaroscuro capable of emphasizing its plastic and expressive strength, presents the most typical suggestions of Flemish origin, with a taste still inclined towards Mannerism, and an excellent pictorial quality.

This is precisely a work that shows evident analogies with the style of Ambrosius Benson (Lombardy, around 1495; Bruges, 1550); an artist of Italian origins, specifically Lombard, registered in the painters' guild of Bruges in 1519, and which can therefore be attributed to a pupil of his workshop or to one of his followers.

The image is compared to a panel (cm. 89 x 70) belonging to the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and dated by critics to the second quarter of the 1525th century, a work created around 50/XNUMX by a follower of Benson **

**Ambrosius Benson (follower) (1495-1550) – Judith with the Head of Holofernes
Second quarter of the 88,7th century – oak, 69,5 x XNUMX cm
Alte Pinakothek Munich
URL: https://www.sammlung.pinakothek.de/de/artwork/A9xlyPzLWv

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The painting is sold complete with a pleasant antique frame and is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity and a descriptive iconographic sheet.

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