Judith Slaying Holofernes

Compare Artemisia's Judith to Caravaggio's, which she almost certainly saw. Caravaggio's Judith looks disgusted and slightly recoiling. Artemisia's Judith is bracing her feet, elbow locked, whole body weight pushing down through the sword. Her forearms bulge with strain. Her sleeves are pushed up. She is doing work. Artemisia had been raped by her father's colleague Agostino Tassi at 17; the trial two years earlier had required her to be tortured to test her testimony. She painted this a year later. Now at Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence @uffizigalleries