Caravaggio painted still lifes very well. This picture is another proof of this talent. At first glance, there is a mess on the table. But if you look more closely, you can understand the order of location of all vegetables and fruits. Looking at the picture, it's hard to imagine that something will be in another place. Here everything lies in its place. And most importantly, the artist was able to present the quality of each product. Juicy or watery, dry. But this composition is crowned not by a vegetable or a fruit, but by an ordinary vase with flowers of unusual beauty.
Usually the heroine of this Bible plot was portrayed after she committed the murder. She kept her head cut off. But Caravaggio captures the moment when this terrible event is going. The head is still not cut off from the body. Holofernes' eyes completely rolled out of their orbits, and his mouth froze in a terrible scream. The artist fascinates the process itself. The picture is naturalistic, giving details of decapitation. Minor details of a physiological nature shock. This is also promoted by the bright colors used by the artist in order to give the picture maximum vitality. If before Caravaggio the painters paid attention to exploits, the artist was the first who decided to focus on the murder. The viewer sees the terrible and incredibly severe side of this event.
On this fragment we see the face of a young woman who is forced to commit murder for the sake of her people's life. Judith kills the drunken Holofernes, who came to subdue Judah and plunge it into barbarism. On the fragment, the viewer closely sees the face of a young woman who decided to kill, which she herself perceives as the necessary execution of the criminal against her people. On her gentle beautiful face there is no shadow of triumph, only determination, disgust. She recoiled away from the one to whom she cut off head at that moment. The woman is beautiful, she has reddish, curly hair, big eyes, gentle form of a slightly opened small mouth, thin frowning brows.
His compositionally complex pictures the artist immediately created on canvas, without a preliminary drawing or sketch. The entire creative path of Caravaggio in art was accompanied by the struggle of light and shadow, a sharp opposition to each other. The same thing we see in the picture "Musicians". His paintings are still light and lyrical. He often paints musicians as in the presented work, in which flowering youth and sublime art merge in harmony. In "Musicians" can still hear the breath of the Renaissance. But in the dense and complex composition of the work, in the swirled fabrics of clothes and draperies, those strains and light nervous shivers that distinguish Baroque art are felt.
On this portrait the artist portrayed the actress Antonia Zarate in a white turban decorated with a moon, probably she is represented in one of the roles. An anxious look of weary dark eyes captures the viewer's attention. Cold light emphasizes the pallor of a beautiful face framed by thick curls. It lights up a silvery dress and a light kerchief of the actress, plays with highlights on a cape with an ermine fur thrown over her shoulders. This work is one of the best portraits of the Romantic era because of the amazing mood and nature representation of the internal state of a person. The portrait of Antonia Zarate is the artist's dream of a wonderful, marvelous combination of spirituality and beauty.
