and... Judith

Untitled #228, 1990
Cindy Sherman (American, b. 1954)
Color photograph. 82 x 48 in.
Broad Art Foundation
Image: arthistory.about.com

Speaking of Judith, I didn't start out with any of a subject within a theme, though this will be limited to two. I chose Cindy Sherman because she has been a fascination of mine for years. Sherman has created a number of different series throughout her career and I decided to look for one of her historical portraits. What do I come across but another wonderful interpretation of Judith and Holofernes I simply couldn't put off.

Sherman is connected to Buffalo, she attended Buffalo State College where she got interested in art and with fellow artist, Robert Longo, started an art center in Buffalo, Hallwalls (I attended a sculpture workshop there in high school).

I first saw one of Sherman's history portraits at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota. I was wandering through a gallery and initially took the work as another painting of an aristocrat of little interest to me, but something peaked my insterest so I returned to it and quickly discovered this was not your average old portrait. While Sherman is in her photographs they do not function as self-portraits, she becomes her character, visible yet anonymous. Her work is an interplay between concept and history, reality and fantasy. Her appropriation is fascinating.

A large collection of Cindy Sherman's work.

Judith

Judith and her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes
c.1623/1625
Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653)
72 3/8 x 55 3/4 in.
oil on canvas
Image: Detroit Institute of Arts (52.253)

If one were to think that women artists of the 19th century had difficulty being taken seriously, imagine the world in which women artists of the 17th century had to compete for their careers and existence in. Gentileschi was trained by her a father, the painter, Orazio Gentileschi. Much of her work as only recently been attributed to her, as it was often attributed to Orazio. As a result of this and her time she was marginalized as an artist for many years, only somewhat recently coming to the forefront of art historical scholarship.

Her father introduced her to artists, and one can see the influence of Caravaggio in the chiaroscuro of her work. The strength in her work is striking. I didn't choose Gentileschi's painting of the actual decapitation of Holofernes (I like the light in this one better) but in order to see some of the differences between approaches to depicting the scene through art, see Judith and Holofernes.
Judith