Artist field note

Caravaggio

Light, violence and ordinary people.

Appears inThe GiantsItaly
Judith Beheading Holofernes by Caravaggio
The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public domainSource ↗

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Judith Beheading Holofernes

c. 1598-1599

There is no heroic distance. We witness the physical effort, shock and horror of the act.

The five in one idea

Caravaggio made painting feel less like looking at history and more like witnessing it.