| Author |
Message |
Bill Love
|
 Posted: Mon 01 Jan, 2007 10:16 am Post subject: Judith's Sword |
 |
|
In the 1621 Gentileschi painting "Judith slaying Holofernes," Judith is using a sword that obviously was painted from life but appears truncated at the tip. Does anyone know of such a configuration in a surviving sword? It appears to be a recontoured break, but I'm not sure-
 Attachment: 100.96 KB
"History is a set of lies agreed upon."
Napoleon Bonaparte
|
|
  |
 |
|
Lafayette C Curtis
|
| Posted: Tue 02 Jan, 2007 2:30 am Post subject: |
|
|
|
It doesn't look strange to me at all. Some katzbalger blades certainly look like that, and I've seen some Oakeshott type XIX blades as well as later Renaissance examples in that shape. Of course, some of these swords are suspected of having been broken and repaired, so your conjecture might be correct after all.
|
|
|
|
|
|
George Hill
Location: Atlanta Ga Joined: 16 May 2005
Posts: 614
|
| Posted: Tue 02 Jan, 2007 3:16 am Post subject: Re: Judith's Sword |
|
|
| Bill Love wrote: | | In the 1621 Gentileschi painting "Judith slaying Holofernes," Judith is using a sword that obviously was painted from life but appears truncated at the tip. Does anyone know of such a configuration in a surviving sword? It appears to be a recontoured break, but I'm not sure- |
As that is a 'modern' sword of the time, painted in a scene of the ancients, it's possible the painter had been told they 'used shorter swords back then' and just cut off the tip as a result.
To abandon your shield is the basest of crimes. - --Tacitus on Germania
|
|
  |
|
Chad Arnow
myArmoury Team
|
|
  |
|
Bill Love
|
| Posted: Tue 02 Jan, 2007 8:16 am Post subject: Judith's Sword |
|
|
Thanks for the information, everyone! 
"History is a set of lies agreed upon."
Napoleon Bonaparte
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kjell Magnusson
|
| Posted: Wed 03 Jan, 2007 10:13 am Post subject: |
|
|
I've noticed something similar on some sculptures, this one for example (early 16th century). The sculpture of St George in the Stockholm Cathedral has a similar tip (finished 1489).
Attachment: 74.02 KB
|
|
|
|
|
Bill Love
|
| Posted: Wed 03 Jan, 2007 1:03 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Thanks Kjell,
That is an amazingly detailed sword! Is that a chape at the hilt?
Bill
"History is a set of lies agreed upon."
Napoleon Bonaparte
|
|
|
|
|
Bruno Giordan
|
| Posted: Fri 05 Jan, 2007 2:16 am Post subject: |
|
|
The sword appears uncommonly short also for a perspective effect: the blade is very inclined, so it appears shorter than it really is.
All the painting shows an impressive mastering of the perspctive art by the painter, out of this mastering comes an impressively realistic idea of vitality of the characters.
|
|
|
|
|
Steve Grisetti
|
| Posted: Fri 05 Jan, 2007 2:36 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Bill Love wrote: | Thanks Kjell,
That is an amazingly detailed sword! Is that a chape at the hilt?
Bill |
Are you asking about the black piece over the center of the guard? If so, that looks like a rain guard, to me.
"...dismount thy tuck, be yare in thy preparation, for thy assailant is quick, skilful, and deadly."
- Sir Toby Belch
|
|
|
|
|
Bill Love
|
| Posted: Fri 05 Jan, 2007 6:33 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Thanks Steve. That's what I meant but it didn't come out that way 
"History is a set of lies agreed upon."
Napoleon Bonaparte
|
|
|
|
|
|
Andrew J
|
| Posted: Sat 06 Jan, 2007 1:13 am Post subject: |
|
|
|
I looked at the sword in that painting for a good couple of minutes before I realized it was being used to cut a man's neck.
|
|
|
|
|
Bill Love
|
| Posted: Sun 07 Jan, 2007 10:16 am Post subject: |
|
|
Yep. Artemisia Gentileschi worked a lot in this theme-she was raped by a mentor as a young woman and may have been expressing her feelings through her work
"History is a set of lies agreed upon."
Napoleon Bonaparte
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This is a standard topic
