Tails from the Old Testament - After Caravaggio Print

This piece is part of an exhibition, Getting Under the Skin, currently showing at the Westminster Arts Reference Library situated in London’s West End just behind the National Gallery. The show features 10 famous works of art reimagined by Field and Young as taxidermy tableaux to reflect the Library’s vast art and design collection. Caravaggio’s depiction of the Biblical story in which Judith seduces the Assyrian general Holofernes, gets him drunk and cuts off his head to save Israel from oppression dates from around 1600. Judith’s maid Abra is beside her holding a bag waiting for the fallen head. In Field & Young’s taxidermy recreation of this Renaissance masterpiece all three characters are weasels, playing on this small mammal’s reputation for sneakiness and violence. The backdrop is velvet, the pillow handsewn. The bed is handmade from pine and the floor is calico. The blanket is acrylic satin and the mini sword is a model from Game of Thrones.