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The Head of a Woman Looking Up (Judith)

Guido Reni Italian
1625–26
Not on view
Striking for its coloristic richness-a pictorial quality imparted by the combination of red and black chalk-this head of a young woman is a preparatory study for Reni's painting Judith and Holofernes, a celebrated and much replicated composition. The present study was most probably derived from life, to judge from the bold immediacy of the contours and the quick zig-zagging of the parallel hatching of the shading. The elegiac beauty of the young female model that is seen here would be idealized by the artist into a more athletic, heroic type in the painted composition. In the drawing, which exhibits theexquisite "two-chalk" technique is typical of Guido's work of the mid-1620s, the upturned head of the figure exhibits gentler facial features and a softer modeling of the flesh in the area of the neck. The Museum owns a further preparatory drawing for the same painting (62.123.1), a study formerly collected by the Italian connoisseur Sebastiano Resta.The painted canvas that is favored as Guido Reni's autograph original is that in the Sedlmayer Collection, Geneva, but a further monumental variant on the same subject is in the Galleria Spada in Rome (234 x 150 cm; See Federico Zeri, La Galleria Spada in Roma, 1953, p. 110). The Museum also owns three reproductive engravings after this celebrated composition by Reni (nos. 51.501.4564; 51.501.4574; 51.501.5060).

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Head of a Woman Looking Up (Judith)
  • Artist: Guido Reni (Italian, Bologna 1575–1642 Bologna)
  • Date: 1625–26
  • Medium: Red and black chalk, on originally blue paper now faded to light brown-gray
  • Dimensions: 13 1/4 × 8 7/8 in. (33.6 × 22.6 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1992
  • Object Number: 1992.70
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Pictorial print, Guido Reni in Rospiglioso Palace, Rome Italian, Cotton, French
Pictorial print
Guido Reni
mid-19th century
Angoli dipinti a fresco da Guido Reni nella Loggia contigua al Giardino del Palazzo dell'Eccmo. SigR. Duca Mazarino nel Monte Quirinale intagliati da Carlo Cesio dati in Luce da Domenico de Rossi. . .in Roma alla Pace. . .
Guido Reni
n.d.
The Virgin holding the infant Christ on her lap, an oval composition, after Reni, Guido Reni Italian, Etching
The Virgin holding the infant Christ on her lap, an oval composition, after Reni
Guido Reni
1620–50
A group of angels embracing in flight, framed by clouds, Guido Reni Italian, Etching
A group of angels embracing in flight, framed by clouds
Guido Reni
Luca Cambiaso
ca. 1607
The Holy Family with young John the Baptist and Saint Elizabeth, two angels above, Guido Reni Italian, Etching
The Holy Family with young John the Baptist and Saint Elizabeth, two angels above
Guido Reni
ca. 1590–1610

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