Judith Slaying Holofernes By Artemisia Gentileschi

‘Judith Slaying Holofernes” is an oil on canvas painting painted by an Italian female artist Artemisia Gentileschi completed between 1614-20 in the last Renaissance period. It now lives at Museo Di Capodimonte in Naples, Italy.

Religious Value: This is a dramatic but powerful painting which comes from “Apocryphal book of Judith” in the Old Testament of the Bible. The biblical story inspired many of her paintings.In this painting it shows Judith who is a young widow from the Jewish City of Bethulia and a biblical herione beheading the general of the Assyrian army. The King of Nineveh sent this general, Holofernes to kill his enemies which were the Jewish people. A lot of Jewish people in Bethulia where Judith lived got killed and began losing hope. Judith decided to take things into her own hands and snuck into the camp where they were staying. She seduced Holofernes with her beauty, this causing Holofernes to drink more than he planned and becoming extremely drunk. When he is out of sane Artemisia see’s it as her chance and beheads him with the help of her maid who is the second woman in this painting holding him down. Ever since then Judith has been seen a biblical heroine and looked up at for standing up for her town against the Assyrians. So this is painting has a religious value mostly for Jews as the painting can be seen as there sign of freedom.

Personal Value: Artemisia Gentileschi was raped at the age of seventeen by her mentor Agostino Tassi who was taken to court and after a seven month rape trial was imprisoned for two years.

Even though he was imprisoned it still ruined Artemisia reputation. It also angered and haunted her causing her to paint a lot of her feelings in paintings. We see her feelings in this brutal and graphic painting where Judith is killing Holofernes, it is believed she has painted herself as Judith and her mentor as Holofernes making the painting very

personal.

Art Historical Value: Artemisia Gentileschi painted woman but not in the stereotypical feminine way, she painted woman to be brave and powerful, equal to how men were painted. She rebelled against stereotypes and we see this in this painting where a woman is killing a man. There also wasn’t much female artists at the time and it was very hard for woman to be able to go to schools like male artists did to learn and train to be better. Even though there were other female artists they were usually looked over by the male artists and it was still a very uncommon and difficult path to choose at the time. Art critic Roberto Longhi's described Artemisia as “the only woman in Italy who ever knew about painting, coloring, doughing, and other fundamentals”. So for a woman to be an artist and be recognised for her work is a big deal, mostly in the time of the Renaissance period. Also for a woman to paint such a brutal painting was not expected of them.

‘Impression Sunrise’ is an oil on canvas painting painted by french artist Claude Monet in 1872. The painting now lives at Musee Marmottan Monet in Paris.

Art Historic Value: This painting is seen as a symbol of the impressionist movement and is the painting that got the impressionism period it’s name. This painting is of the view from the Le Havre in north western France. This painting got a lot of criticism after starring in the Exhibition of The Impressionists which is an exhibition Claude Monet and a couple friends of his which were also impressionist artists opened after becoming sick of waiting for the Salon, the only official state sponsored exhibition to chose one of their paintings to display. Art Critic Louis Leroy saw the exhibition which included Monet’s painting ‘Impression Sunrise” and wrote that all the paintings there were just impressions and the name stuck. This painting also has all the style features impressionism was known for, he caught a moment in time with light. The way it is painted is with thick not very blended and visible brush strokes it lacks much detail and looks effortless which they were also known for.

Personal Value: Even though the meaning of this painting is a mystery to some it can have a personal value to it. Monet moved to Le Havre where ‘Impression Sunrise’ is painted at the age of five meaning he grew up there for most of his life being blessed with the view of what he painted way before painting it. Ever since moving there he gained a love for being outdoors and an interest in painting. This painting is a painting of the view from his house which means this view was something he saw a lot of and meant a lot to him as it is what the outside looked like to him from inside his house.

Aesthetic Value: It has a lot of aesthetic value because of the beauty of it.It is not a well blended seamless painting but the different tones of pigmented colours and short thick strokes make it very unique and interesting to look at. It attracts you because of how different it is.

‘For the Love of God’ is a sculpture made by English artist Damien Hirst in 2007. The sculpture now lives in White Cube which is an art gallery in London.

Material Value: This sculpture was made using a real human skull which is believed to be the skull of a 35 year old European man who died in 1810. Attached to the skull are real human teeth who also belong to the European man. After buying the skull from a shop in Islington, London he bought 8,601 small flawless diamonds and one pear shaped diamond. He bought so many diamonds at once leading there to be shortages in the market. He decorated the skull with all the diamonds this making the sculpture 1,106.18 carats and very expensive. This sculpture costed Hirst 23.6 million to make.

Monetary Value: Despite the material of this sculpture only costing Hirst 23.6 Million, On August the 30th 2007 he put it up for sale for 50 million euros which converts to $7 969, 778. 60 in New Zealand dollars. There was a lot of controversy surrounding its sale and if it actually did really get sold. It’s believed that he struggled to sell it and lowered the price hoping it would. Damien Hirst claims he sold it all in cash that meaning no paper evidence and said the buyer would like to stay anonymous. Many say he sold it for too much considering he paid less than half to make it leaving it unreasonable. People say it is very popular because of how much it costs and the money factor of it all.

Spiritual Value: Many people see this sculpture differently, some see it as just ‘bling’ which Damien Hirst says he was avoiding. But this sculpture shows the relationship of art, life and death and to remind us of our mortality.. It’s seen as a ‘Memento Mori’ which is a latin expression that translates to ‘remember you have to die’. Him using a real life skull represents the life of a human and that it does come to an end. He said he doesn’t like death and that it is “a heavy subject, it would be good to make something that laughed in the face of it” and he does this by glamorizing something that shouldn’t be with diamonds. The fact it is glamorized can be seen as that it’s ‘not that bad’.