Gallery label
Engraving made Judith portable, translating a coveted Mantegnesque invention into a repeatable image that could travel without its panel.
Look closely
Dense parallel lines harden textile, stone, and flesh into one metallic atmosphere. The carefully staged handoff can now recur wherever a sheet is carried.
Why this Judith matters
Prints created networks of looking and borrowing—the infrastructure through which an iconography became durable.
Sources for this record:National Gallery of Art record ↗
“Engraving made Judith portable, translating a coveted Mantegnesque invention into a repeatable image that could travel without its panel.”
Narrative index
Primary catalogue placement: the head in the bag, Judith 13:9–10. The index organizes comparison; it does not claim that every visual detail comes from those verses or that the work touches only one episode.
