Judith and Holofernes

Around 1730, while Venetian painting was drifting toward pale Rococo pinks and blues, Giulia Lama worked in the opposite direction, deep shadow lit by a single guttering flame. Here she takes the Old Testament story of Judith, the widow who saved her town by getting into the enemy camp and beheading the general Holofernes in his sleep. His heavy body lies twisted across the bed, the candlelight throwing everything else into darkness. Lama was one of very few women running a studio in the city, and one of the first anywhere allowed to study the male nude from life, which is part of why she could build a figure this convincing. The painting stayed out of public view for a long time and only entered the Accademia in 1976.