Untitled (#228)
Untitled (#228), from the History Portraits series. Cindy Sherman. 1990 C.E. Photograph.
Judith looks boldly out at her audience and presents the head of Holofernes in her right hand, displaying the dagger she used to decapitate him in her left. She is garbed in billowing red, blue, and green drapery and stands in front of a curtain made of pieces of brocaded and patterned fabric. Her head is tilted slightly to her left.
unlike Botticelli’s pristine and idealized nudes, Judith’s makeup is heavy-handed, almost tacky. The fabrics that at first seem to glimmer are, upon closer inspection, chintzy and cheap. And Holofernes’ head, which is usually frightening and powerful, looks like a used Halloween mask.
the slick surface of the picture quickly reveals that it is not even an oil painting, but actually a monumental photograph.
The Contemporary Master, Cindy Sherman—known for embodying and enacting images from popular media—has imagined a Renaissance interpretation of the Old Testament hero Judith, and photographed herself in the part. And she has intentionally done this with just enough illusionism to confuse the viewer,
Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #228 is part of her series of photographs, History Portraits.
The photographs feel familiar and original, contemporary and classic, and create a feeling of unsettled anxiety in the audience.
drawn upon Renaissance and Baroque images of Judith with the head of Holofernes. a heroine who saves the Israelites from a conquering Assyrian general by befriending him and visiting his tent one night while he is drunk. She takes advantage of his unfit state and decapitates him. The Assyrians, shocked by the assassination of their leader, retreat. The Israelites are saved.
Judith has always been a heroine that engendered great anxiety. Cindy Sherman’s photograph captures that. She is dressed in red, the color of lust and seduction, as well as the color of blood.
tackles issues regarding female identity and sexuality, as well as pornography and media objectification of women.
Her art embodies all of our own bodily and psychological insecurities, our fears about our fluid identities in an unstable world, and the angst of finding oneself in a world in which we must always perform.
Judith looks boldly out at her audience and presents the head of Holofernes in her right hand, displaying the dagger she used to decapitate him in her left. She is garbed in billowing red, blue, and green drapery and stands in front of a curtain made of pieces of brocaded and patterned fabric. Her head is tilted slightly to her left.
unlike Botticelli’s pristine and idealized nudes, Judith’s makeup is heavy-handed, almost tacky. The fabrics that at first seem to glimmer are, upon closer inspection, chintzy and cheap. And Holofernes’ head, which is usually frightening and powerful, looks like a used Halloween mask.
the slick surface of the picture quickly reveals that it is not even an oil painting, but actually a monumental photograph.
The Contemporary Master, Cindy Sherman—known for embodying and enacting images from popular media—has imagined a Renaissance interpretation of the Old Testament hero Judith, and photographed herself in the part. And she has intentionally done this with just enough illusionism to confuse the viewer,
Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #228 is part of her series of photographs, History Portraits.
The photographs feel familiar and original, contemporary and classic, and create a feeling of unsettled anxiety in the audience.
drawn upon Renaissance and Baroque images of Judith with the head of Holofernes. a heroine who saves the Israelites from a conquering Assyrian general by befriending him and visiting his tent one night while he is drunk. She takes advantage of his unfit state and decapitates him. The Assyrians, shocked by the assassination of their leader, retreat. The Israelites are saved.
Judith has always been a heroine that engendered great anxiety. Cindy Sherman’s photograph captures that. She is dressed in red, the color of lust and seduction, as well as the color of blood.
tackles issues regarding female identity and sexuality, as well as pornography and media objectification of women.
Her art embodies all of our own bodily and psychological insecurities, our fears about our fluid identities in an unstable world, and the angst of finding oneself in a world in which we must always perform.