Judith+and+Holofernes

= Judith Beheading Holofernes = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (Redirected from [|Judith and Holofernes] ) //Judith with the Head of Holofernes// by [|Lucas Cranach the Elder], 1530  The account of the **beheading of Holofernes by Judith** is given in the [|deuterocanonical] [|book of Judith] , and is the subject of numerous depictions in painting and __ [|sculpture] __. In the story, Judith, a beautiful widow, is able to enter the tent of [|Holofernes] because of his desire for her. Holofernes was an [|Assyrian] general who was about to destroy Judith's home, the city of [|Bethulia], though the story is emphatic that no "defilement" takes place. Overcome with drink, he passes out and is [|decapitated] by Judith; his head is taken away in a basket (often depicted as carried by an elderly female servant). Artists have mainly chosen one of two possible scenes (with or without the servant): the decapitation, with Holofernes prone on the bed, or the heroine holding or carrying the head. In European art, Judith is very often accompanied by her maid at her shoulder, which helps to distinguish her from [|Salome], who also carries her victim's head on a silver charger (plate). However, a Northern tradition developed whereby Judith had both a maid and a charger, famously taken by [|Erwin Panofsky] as an example of the knowledge needed in the study of [|iconography]. For many artists and scholars, Judith was a character whose sexualized femininity interestingly and sometimes contradictorily combined with her masculine aggression. Judith was one of the virtuous women whom Van Beverwijck mentioned in his published apology (1639) for the superiority of women to men, [|[1]] and a common example of the Power of Women iconographic theme in the [|Northern Renaissance]. [ [|hide] ] *  [|1 Renaissance depictions] >
 * == Contents ==
 * [|2 Baroque depictions]
 * [|4 Gallery]
 * [|5 References]
 * [|6 External links] ||

[ [|edit] ] Renaissance depictions
[|Fede Galizia], //Judith with the __ [|Head] __ of Holofernes// 1596  // [|Judith and Holofernes] //, the famous bronze sculpture by [|Donatello] , bears the implied allegorical subtext that was inescapable in Early Renaissance Florence, that of the courage of the [|commune] against tyranny. Early Renaissance images of Judith tend to depict her as fully dressed and de-sexualized; besides Donatello's sculpture, this is the Judith seen in [|Sandro Botticelli] 's //The Return of Judith to Bethulia// (1470-1472) and in the corner of [|Michelangelo] 's [|Sistine chapel] (1508-1512). Later Renaissance artists, notably [|Lucas Cranach the Elder], showed a more sexualized Judith, a "seducer-assassin": "the very clothes that had been introduced into the iconography to stress her chastity become sexually charged as she exposes the gory head to the shocked but fascinated viewer," in the words of art critic [|Jonathan Jones]. [|[2]] Italian painters of the Renaissance who painted the theme include [|Botticelli], [|Giorgione] , [|Titian] , and [|Paolo Veronese]. Especially in Germany an interest developed in female "worthies" and heroines, to match the traditional male sets. Subjects combining sex and violence were also popular with collectors. Like [|Lucretia], Judith was the __ [|subject] __ of a disproportionate number of [|old master prints] , sometimes shown nude. [|Barthel Beham] engraved three compositions of the subject, and other of the " [|Little Masters] " did several more. [|Jacopo de' Barberi], Girolamo Mocetta (after a design by [|Andrea Mantegna] ), and [|Parmigianino] also made prints of the subject.

[ [|edit] ] Baroque depictions
Judith remained popular in the [|Baroque] period; Salome even more so. Italian painters including [|Caravaggio], [|Leonello Spada] , and [|Bartolomeo Manfredi] depicted Judith and Holofernes; and in the north, [|Rembrandt] , [|Peter Paul Rubens] , and [|Eglon van der Neer] [|[3]] used the story. The influential composition by [|Cristofano Allori] (c. 1613 onwards), which exists in several versions, copied a conceit of Caravaggio's recent // [|David with the Head of Goliath] //; the head is a portrait of the artist, Judith his ex-mistress, and the maid her mother. [|[4]] In [|Artemisia Gentileschi] 's painting // [|Judith Slaying Holofernes] // (Naples) it is Judith who is the self-portrait, while Holofernes resembles her rapist [|Agostino Tassi]. Like Caravaggio in his [|//Judith Slaying Holofernes//] of 1612 she chooses to show the actual moment of the killing. [|[5]] A different composition in the [|Pitti Palace] in Florence shows a more traditional scene with the head in a basket. When Rubens began commissioning reproductive prints of his work, the first was an engraving by [|Cornelius Galle], done "somewhat clumsily," [|[6]] of his violent //Judith Slaying Holofernes// (1606-1610). [|[7]] Other prints were made by such artists as [|Jacques Callot]. In music the account of Judith is the theme of the [|oratorio] [|Juditha Triumphans], by the Italian composer [|Antonio Vivaldi].