Lot 1523
CIRCLE OF CRISTOFANO ALLORI (1577-1621)
JUDITH WITH THE HEAD OF HOLOFERNES
Oil on canvas
131 x 103cm.
* A 17th Century copy of Allori's most famous subject, the prime version of which is believed to be in the Royal Collection (1613) whilst a later autograph version is in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (1620). However, many variants by the artist and his workshop exist: Allori, obsessed with a determination to perfect the subject, made numerous adjustments as the composition developed. Such a variant, measuring 142 x 107cm, was sold at Sothebys London, December 10th 2015 (lot 173).
The theme, both alluring and gruesome, depicts the seductive Jewish widow Judith who had decapitated the Assyrian general Holofernes in his own tent and then brought the severed head back to her people. Filippo Baldinucci (c.1624-1696), Allori's biographer, asserted that the model for Judith was Allori's mistress Maria di Giovanni Mazzafirra and that her mother modelled for the servant woman on the right. Baldinucci contended that the head of Holofernes was a self portrait of Allori himself.
Provenance: Capt. S. S. Windham (old handwritten label on stretcher); Knowle, Frant, nr. Tunbridge Wells (formerly the home of Mrs Benskin), Christies sale on the premises, May 12-13th 1980, lot 36, whereat purchased by the late father of the current owner
Literature: Professor John Shearman, Early Italian Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen (Cambridge, 1983) where this picture is cited (p.7) and described by Shearman as "an excellent version generally similar to (ii) [Royal Collection version] but not a copy of it."
