Judith with the Head of Holofernes

Conservation of this painting was made possible by a generous contribution from Kevin and Leela Joseph Scattum. As told in the Bible, the Jewish heroine Judith saved her people by decapitating the Assyrian general Holofernes. Here Judith looks heavenward for guidance, as she and her maid, Abra, wrap Holofernes’s enormous bearded head in a blood-stained cloth. At right is the general’s shiny plumed helmet, now forever empty. The picture reflects Pietro della Vecchia’s interest in imitating century-old art, evident here in the women’s small figural proportions and the antiquated facial types. He  sometimes even produced forgeries imitating works by famous Venetian artists.