Gallery label
Sherman performs Judith through thrift-store splendor, prosthetic artifice, and the giant scale of an Old Master portrait translated into photography.
Look closely
MoMA describes Sherman as model, set-dresser, and photographer: she holds a masklike head and blood-smeared knife while the costume's cheapness remains visible beneath pictorial grandeur.
Why this Judith matters
MoMA records that Sherman began the History Portraits while living in Rome, but does not specify where this particular photograph was staged or printed. The exhibition therefore treats Rome as series context, not this object’s birthplace.
Sources for this record:The Museum of Modern Art record ↗
“Sherman performs Judith through thrift-store splendor, prosthetic artifice, and the giant scale of an Old Master portrait translated into photography.”
Narrative index
Primary catalogue placement: afterlife of the story, Judith 13:14–16. The index organizes comparison; it does not claim that every visual detail comes from those verses or that the work touches only one episode.