Caravaggio's 'Judith Beheading Holofernes' Inspires 31-Work Exhibition at Palazzo Barberini

An exhibition at Palazzo Barberini in Rome brings together 31 paintings all depicting the biblical story of Judith and Holofernes, tracing the influence of Caravaggio's revolutionary 1602 masterpiece. Curated by Maria Cristina Terzaghi, the show reveals how the painting's fame spread despite its owner, Genoese banker Ottavio Costa, keeping it hidden behind a silk curtain to preserve its value. Artists including Cagnacci, Valentin de Boulogne, Vermiglio, and Artemisia Gentileschi created their own interpretations based on memory and word-of-mouth. The exhibition is structured chronologically: a first room with pre-Caravaggio works by Lavinia Fontana and Tintoretto; a room dedicated to Caravaggio's original and its direct imitations; and a final section highlighting Artemisia Gentileschi's 1612 version from Capodimonte, where Judith and her maidservant act as co-conspirators, showing an intimacy Caravaggio ignored. Also included are depictions of David and Goliath and Salome with the Head of John the Baptist. The Caravaggio painting itself was lost until 1951, when restorer Pico Cellini, a student of Roberto Longhi, rediscovered it and sent it to a major Caravaggio exhibition in Milan.