Lot 17: BENEDETTO GENNARI Judith with the Head of Holofernes

BENEDETTO GENNARI
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
Oil on canvas


This painting is very probably by Benedetto Gennari, who is well-known for being both Emilian master Guercino’s nephew and the heir to his thriving workshop.
Gennari’s style is very similar but easy to tell apart from that of his far more celebrated uncle, whose dramatic chiaroscuro tones he emulates, yet without ever achieving the extraordinary nuanced solemnity typical of Guercino’s work.
The difference between the uncle and the nephew is all the more glaring in this canvas because the hand of both artists’ work in the composition is very easy to decipher.
Gennari undoubtedly afforded due consideration to the Judith and Holofernes now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest, a picture which his uncle had painted for an apothecary named Giacomo Zanoni, as we can read in his Book of Accounts for 1 April 1651. The stylistic difference between the picture under discussion here and the prototype now in Brest is clear, yet it is useful in helping us to de- termine that the face of Judith in our picture is very clearly by the hand of Guercino himself. This in no way diminishes the freshness or the power of Gennari’s work, which is clearer in the handling of the colour contrasts and very sharp in the definition of the drapery, certainly not taking second place to Guercino’s contribution. What is missing compared to the Judith and Holofernes in Brest is the sense of theatre and the breadth of the stage setting, where Judith’s rapid, slicing movement with her sword still betrays the legacy of Guido Reni. The rendering of the figures in our picture is thus slightly less rigid than in the prototype, yet no less effective for all that. We would argue that it is also useful to compare the picture with a Holy Family with the Young St. John the Baptist and St. Anne now in the Musée des Beaux Arts in Dijon, in which the contrast between the faces of the youthful Mary and the older St. Anne echo the contrast between the freshness of Judith and the lined face of her servant in our picture (see, in the Federico Zeri Photographic Library, entry 59294 folder 0549 in the section devoted to Benedetto Gennari). And finally, it is worth comparing this painting with a canvas of the same subject now in the Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel. The Kassel picture is a blatant copy of the Brest prototype and unquestionably an autograph work by Gennari, yet softer in its overall execution than our painting here. The date for our picture should be close to that of the Brest painting, thus around 1655 when Gennari was only a little over twenty years old. The picture’s state of con- servation is excellent, both in terms of the support and in terms of the adherence of the colour to the priming coat on the canvas.
124.5 x 118 cm

124.5 x 118 cm

Oil on canvas