Willaim Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke

British, 1580 - 1630

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A man wearing armor, sitting astride a cream-white horse, drives a long lance down at a lizard-like dragon as a woman kneels with her hands in prayer in the landscape beyond in this vertical painting. Both people have pale skin and thin, gold halos floating above their heads. At the center of the composition, the man faces our left in profile as he looks down at the creature. The man has a straight nose and honey-brown hair under his gold-trimmed, pewter-gray helmet. Armor covers his entire body, and a celestial-blue cape billows behind him from where it fastens around his neck. A narrow, indigo-blue and gold band is tied around his left calf, and is inscribed with the word “HONI.” A black sword hangs from his left side. The horse is white with a silvery-white mane and tail. It rears on its hind legs as it turns its head to look at us with hazel-brown eyes. The horse wears a blue saddle and bridle, the same color as the man’s cape, trimmed with gold. A strap around the horse’s neck is painted in gold with the name, “RAPHELLO.” The rider thrusts his foot into the stirrup we can see as he plunges a lance down at the dragon under the horse’s front feet. The dragon has tawny brown skin with a mint green, dog-like head. It grips the earth with clawed feet as at pushes at the lance with one front foot. It twists its long, snake-like neck to look at the man with dark eyes. The dragon opens its pointed snout to show its teeth, and bat-like wings splay out. A tall outcropping over a cave rises along the left edge of the composition, behind the dragon. In a field a little farther back, to our right, the woman kneels with her body angled to our left. She tilts her head away from us and gazes past the man and horse. She has a straight nose, pale pink, bow-shaped lips, and her blond hair is pulled back in a bun. She wears a ruby-red dress and a sheer white wrap around her shoulders and across her arms. Around the woman, straw-yellow hills with bands of pine-green trees roll into the distance. Two terracotta-orange towers rise from a row of trees along the horizon. A few taller trees are outlined against the baby-blue sky, which lightens toward the horizon.
Raphael, Saint George and the Dragon, c. 1506, oil on panel, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.26

Saint George and the Dragon

Raphael · c. 1506 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1937.1.26

Standing at the entrance of an open tent, a woman holds the severed head of a bearded man over a sack held open by another person in this vertical painting. All the people have pale, ivory-white skin. To our right, Judith, who holds the head, stands with her body angled to our left. She looks back over her shoulder, off to our right, with light brown eyes. She has a long nose, smooth cheeks, and her small, peach-tinged lips are closed. Tightly curled, amber-brown ringlets frame her oval face and fall to her shoulders. Her loose, pearl-white dress, which is almost the color of her skin, falls off one shoulder and is belted just below her bust. A long, ultramarine-blue cloth drapes over one shoulder and arm, and around her body. Open-toed, moss-green sandals peek out from beneath her hem. Her right hand, to our left, grasps a long, straight, iron blade by her hip. The blade has a ridge up along its center, and the tip is cut straight across. She holds up the severed head in her other hand, so that arm crosses her body. The severed head faces away from us so only a sliver of the nose, cheek, and one closed eye are visible. The head has chestnut-brown hair and beard, and the mouth is open wide. To our left, the attendant holding the sack looks down at the head, her face framed by a white cloth that wraps around her head, under her chin, and across her shoulders. She wears a canary-yellow tunic over silvery-gray pants. A red cape drapes over one shoulder and around her body. She is barefoot. The tent is supported by a wooden pole, just beyond and between the pair. The gold-edged, rose-pink flaps of the tent have been pulled back and tied to each side. The interior beyond them is dark but the end of a gold bed draped with white cloth and one bare foot, the sole coming toward us, emerges from the shadows, to our right of Judith. The ground beneath the tent is made of tan, roughly square stones, scattered with pebbles. The peak of the tent rises off the top center of the composition, and the area to each side is midnight blue.
Andrea Mantegna, Giulio Campagnola, Judith with the Head of Holofernes, c. 1495/1500, tempera on poplar panel, Widener Collection, 1942.9.42

Judith with the Head of Holofernes

Andrea Mantegna, Giulio Campagnola · c. 1495/1500 · tempera on poplar panel ·  Accession ID  1942.9.42