(Leonessa circa 1600 – after 1644?)
Judith beheading Holofernes,
oil on canvas, 122.5 x 175 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Christie’s, Rome, 19 November 1990, lot 99 (as Nicolas Régnier);
where acquired by the present owner
Private European collection

Exhibited:
Rome, Palazzo Barberini, Caravaggio e Artemisia, la sfida di Giuditta. Violenza e seduzione nella pittura tra Cinque e Seicento, 26 November 2021 – 27 March 2022 (as Bartolomeo Mendozzi [Maestro dell’Incredulità di San Tommaso])

Literature:
G. Papi, Il Maestro dell’Incredulità di San Tommaso, in: Arte Cristiana, 779, 1997, pp. 123-124, 127, fig. 9 (as Maestro dell’Incredulità di San Tommaso [Jean Ducamps?]);
G. Papi, Il Maestro dei giocatori, in: Paragone, 1998, p. 20, fig. 27 (as Maestro dell’Incredulità di San Tommaso [Jean Ducamps?]);
G. Papi, Ancora sugli anonimi caravaggeschi, in: Arte Cristiana, 2000, pp. 439, 442, 444-445, fig. 10 (as Maestro dell’Incredulità di San Tommaso [Jean Ducamps?]);
G. Papi, Dipinti inediti di pittori caravaggeschi nella collezione Koelliker, in: Paragone 2004, p. 52, fig. 68 (as Maestro dell’Incredulità di San Tommaso [Jean Ducamps?]);
G. Papi, Il genio degli anonimi. Maestri caravaggeschi a Roma e a Napoli, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2005, pp. 79, 99, fig. H.27, 124 (as Maestro dell’Incredulità di San Tommaso);
A. Lemoine, Nicolas Régnier (alias Niccolò Renieri), ca. 1588–1667. Peintre, collectionneur et marchand d’art, Paris 2007, p. 332, no. R. 17 (under ‘œvres rejetées’);
G. Papi, Spogliando modelli e alzando lumi. Scritti su Caravaggio e l’ambiente caravaggesco, Naples 2014, mentioned on p. 187 (as Maestro dell’incredulità di S. Tommaso);
G. Porzio, A Rediscovered Concert, the Master of the Incredulity of Saint Thomas and Jean Ducamps, Florence 2015, pp. 11-12, p. 26, fig. 9 (as Master of the Incredulity of Saint Thomas [Jean Ducamps?]);
G. Porzio, A Roman Judith and rediscovered paintings from the kingdom of Naples, exhibition catalogue, Naples 2016, p. 8, no. 1 (as Master of the Incredulity of St. Thomas [Jean Ducamps?]);
F. Curti, Bartolomeo Mendozzi alias Maestro dell’Incredulità di San Tommaso: un allievo di Manfredi nella Roma degli anni Trenta e Quaranta, in: A. Cosma, Y. Primarosa (eds.), Barocco in chiaroscuro. Persistenze e rielaborazioni del caravaggismo nell’arte del Seicento. Roma, Napoli, Venezia 1630–1680, Rome 2020, mentioned on p. 40, illustrated p. 42, fig. 3 (as Bartolomeo Mendozzi);
G. Papi, Un misto di grano e di pula, Rome-Naples 2020, p. 194, mentioned under note 3;
F. Curti, in: M. C. Terzaghi (ed.), Caravaggio e Artemisia, la sfida di Giuditta. Violenza e seduzione nella pittura tra Cinque e Seicento, exhibition catalogue, Rome 2021, pp. 122-123, no. II. 9 (as Bartolomeo Mendozzi [Maestro dell’Incredulità di San Tommaso]);
M. Pulini, Bartolomeo Mendozzi da Leonessa. Un Maestro del Seicento tra l’Incredulità, il caso Ducamps e i nuovi documenti, Rimini 2022, pp. 157-158, no. 108 (as Bartolomeo Mendozzi)

The present painting depicts the biblical episode of the decapitation of Holofernes by Judith (Judith 13: 7-8). The subject was painted by Caravaggio (1571–1610) and subsequently became especially popular among his followers. Dressed in elegant robes Judith is shown here looking towards the viewer as she beheads the Assyrian commander Holofernes with a scimitar sword: as his body contorts, he extends his arms in panic. The old maid Abra assists in the horrific event: with one hand she lifts an ample green drape, while with the other she holds a sack which has been prepared to carry away Holofernes’ severed head.

The present composition is considered to be among Bartolomeo Mendozzi’s most significant works: it belongs to the apogee of his maturity, dating to the beginning of the 1630s. In his recent monograph on Mendozzi, Massimo Pulini mentiones that this painting is a milestone in the group of paintings that allowed to identify the painter: ‘una pietra miliare del gruppo che ha permesso la rinascita del pittore’ (see literature).

The subject is rendered in a vigorous, tight style reflecting the painter at the height of his pictorial powers. Stylistically this work is close to the Holy Family in the Musée d’Arts, Nantes (inv. no. 31; for the attribution to Mendozzi see G. Papi, Il genio degli anonimi. Maestri caravaggeschi a Roma e a Napoli, exhibition catalogue, Milan-Geneva 2005, p. 127, no. H27; F. Curti, in: M. C. Terzaghi (ed.), Caravaggio e Artemisia, la sfida di Giuditta violenza e seduzione nella pittura tra Cinque e Seicento, exhibition catalogue, Rome 2021, pp. 122-123, no. II. 9;
M. Pulini, Bartolomeo Mendozzi da Leonessa. Un Maestro del Seicento tra L’incredulità, il caso Ducamps e i nuovi documenti, Rimini 2022, pp. 157–158, under no. 108). When compared to this canvas, it appears that the same model served for the Madonna as for the figure of Judith.

The deployment of paint, which is distinctive for its agitated and incisive brushstrokes and the strong characterisation of the subject’s features, can be compared to other works by the Mendozzi from the same period: the Shepherd’s concert (on loan to the Circolo Ufficiali di Presidio di Torino) and another Concert in a private collection (see op. cit. Curti, Rome 2020, p. 45).

The artist’s reinterpretation of the Caravaggio prototype (around 1600), now in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome, (inv. no. 2533) is expressed with a decisively theatrical interpretation of the event. Following the Caravaggesque example, Mendozzi deploys dark ochre tones, combined with pure reds and white, in order to achieve strong colour contrasts. The emotional intensity achieved by Mendozzi in this composition can also be compared to Artemisia Gentileschi’s rendering of the same subject in the Uffizi, Florence (inv. no. 1890 n. 1567). Here, the violence of the act is charged with a realistic elements visible in the dramatic rendering of Holofernes’ head, positioned by the artist in the foreground of the painting, focusing on the spectator as if appealing for help. In addition, the artist appears to have been influenced by the French followers of Caravaggio and to have adopted a composition that is similar to the Judith and Holofernes by Valentin de Boulogne (1591–1632) conserved in the National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta, Malta.

The present painting was first published by Gianni Papi in 1997 under the pseudonym ‘Maestro dell’ Incredulità di San Tommaso’ (see Papi in literature) – named after the canvas of the same subject in the Palazzo Valentini, Rome. This Judith and Holofernes belonged from the outset to that group of works that were stylistically alike and assembled by the scholar under this moniker. This anonymous master has only recently been identified as the painter Bartolomeo Mendozzi (see Curti in literature), born around 1600 in the village of Leonessa in Northern Lazio and was probably a pupil of Bartolomeo Manfredi (1582–1622).

He was active in Rome and in Central Italy until the mid-1640s. He must have been known to the Barberini and other great Roman patrons of the seventeenth century since his works were present in the most prestigious collections of the era. Indeed, his works were even in the celebrated collection of Marquis Vincenzo Giustiniani, as well as in the collection of the Savoy family (see op. cit. Curti, 2020, p. 44).