This study examines how viewers of different ages encounter two Baroque Judiths: Artemisia Gentil... more This study examines how viewers of different ages encounter two Baroque Judiths: Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes and Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes. A qualitative single-case design was used with six participants aged ten to sixty-four, interviewed in Greek and analysed through reflexive thematic analysis. Interviews followed Pavlou’s Pragmatic–Interpretative Inquiry Model (PIIM), which sequences perception, controlled contextual disclosure and reflexive review.
Gentileschi is treated as a feminist touchstone. Placing her work beside Caravaggio’s examines how gender, authorship and violence steer interpretation. Findings show that meanings form at first glance and are re-weighted when titles or biography appear. Participants negotiated agency, responsibility and gendered power throughout. Early assumptions about age and beauty primed attributions of competence and moral warrant. Context prompted revision but rarely full reversal.
The analysis draws on feminist art history, moral psychology and reception theory. It offers implications for museums and classrooms, showing how trauma-aware facilitation can turn looking into public reasoning and ethical engagement.
Uploads
Papers by Nota Marra
Gentileschi is treated as a feminist touchstone. Placing her work beside Caravaggio’s examines how gender, authorship and violence steer interpretation. Findings show that meanings form at first glance and are re-weighted when titles or biography appear. Participants negotiated agency, responsibility and gendered power throughout. Early assumptions about age and beauty primed attributions of competence and moral warrant. Context prompted revision but rarely full reversal.
The analysis draws on feminist art history, moral psychology and reception theory. It offers implications for museums and classrooms, showing how trauma-aware facilitation can turn looking into public reasoning and ethical engagement.