Judith with the Head of Holofernes

Judith with the Head of Holofernes — Art Institute of Chicago 1/3 is one of the most evocative works by Felice Ficherelli, painted around 1660. The canvas distills the obsessions of the 1650-1700 era — patrons, faith, power, and the fragile theatre of human emotion — into a single, charged image.

Created in 1660 during the 1650-1700 period, this work belongs firmly within the portrait tradition. Felice Ficherelli worked at a moment when the rivalry between Catholic Baroque drama and Protestant restraint reshaped what a painting could mean. Every gesture, fabric, and gleam of light was decoded by contemporary viewers like a private language.

Executed in Oil on canvas, measuring 98.5 × 75.6 cm (38 3/4 × 29 3/4 in.); Framed: 123.9 × 105.5 × 10.8 cm (48 3/4 × 41 1/2 × 4 1/4 in.), the surface rewards close looking. Felice Ficherelli builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward.

Look closely and the painting opens up. Objects you might pass over — a folded letter, a half-drawn curtain, the angle of a glance — were placed to be read. Every prop in a portrait like this is a decision — jewelry, fabric, and hand position were negotiated between painter and patron to shape how the sitter would be remembered.

Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago now holds the work, where conservators and historians continue to revisit its condition and attribution. Each generation of scholarship adds a layer to how Felice Ficherelli's output from this period is understood.

“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”