Lot 62: Attributed to Cesare Dandini Florence 1596 - 1657 After Cristofano Allori Florence 1577 - 1621 , Judith and Holofernes oil on canvas

oil on canvas

measurements note 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 of which the prime version 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 Dandini painted the present painting. Our painting is similar to the Pitti palace version but closer to the version in the Liechtenstein collection in which the artist ,as in the present painting, 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.