Lot 79: ATTRIBUTED TO CESARE DANDINI, AFTER CRISTOFANO ALLORI

ATTRIBUTED TO CESARE DANDINI, AFTER CRISTOFANO ALLORI FLORENCE 1596 - 1657 JUDITH AND HOLOFERNES oil on canvas 52 by 40 3/4 in. ; 132 by 103.5 cm.

This impressive painting is based on Allori's most famous and most repeated composition, the prime version of which is in the Pitti Palace, Florence.υ1

Dandini was a generation younger than Cristofano Allori and also worked in Florence. He must have known one of the versions of Allori's Judith and Holofernes and it has been suggested, on stylistic grounds -- especially looking at the head of Judith -- that he is the author of the present painting. Although the present composition is similar to the Pitti palace version, it is even closer to the version in the Liechtenstein collection, in which the artist also added a pattern of horizontal stripes to Judith's scarf.


1. For a full discussion of Allori's Judith and Holferenes see M.L. Chapell, Cristofano Allori, exhibition catalogue, Florence, Palazzo Pitti, 1984, pp. 78 - 81.