Focus on this artwork and explore the History.
This painting is part of the grisaille production that characterized many works of Mantegna in the later years of his career, from c. 1495 to the end of his life. These works were almost sculptural and were much appreciated in courts. At the time, near Mantua, there was a scarcity of active sculptors and it was difficult to procure marble, which had to be imported from nearby territories.
This artwork exhibits similar techniques, formal and thematic, with Mantegna's painting of Samson and Delilah. It has been hypothesized that they both could have hung together in one of the private rooms of Isabella d'Este in the Ducal Palace of Mantua.
Judith with the Head of Holofernes was acquired in Italy at an unknown time in the 20th century by Lewis Strange Wingfield. Afterwards, it passed into the collection of John Malcolm of Poltalloch in Scotland. It was then sold in 1896 to the director of the National Gallery of Ireland.
In the first years of its display to the public and to scholars, skepticism about the work circulated, despite the high opinions of Bernard Berenson and Paul Kristeller (both wrote about it in 1901). Now, the work is generally attributed to Mantegna, with some reservations from those who hold the work of students and assistants on the painting to have more or less importance.
Samson and Delilah Bernard Berenson Isabella d'Este Holofernes National Gallery of Ireland Judith Ducal Palace grisaille