III. Saint, Evil and everything in between: Different persona, one Judith

At the end of the sixteenth Century, Caravaggio’s version of Judith’s story posted a turning point in the visual rendering of this subject matter. Caravaggio took to another level the emphasis that Renaissance artists had posed in the scenes surrounding Holofernes beheading. In his Judith slaying Holofernes, he focused on the most striking moment of the story and represented the exact moment in which the violent act takes place. The dramatism of the scene was intensified by innovative visual strategies introduced by Caravaggio: the open settings were replaced for an intimate environment created by the use of closer picture planes and a theatrical use of light through strong contrasts between illuminated and obscured zones. This type of atmosphere quickly predominated and became a common element among the representations of Judith’s story.

 Moreover, Caravaggio’s depiction of this particular moment of the narrative, as well as the horror and bloodiness he introduced as a key element on representation of the story, gave more strength to the problematic aspects of Judith’s character as the brutality of the beheading was not neutralized or minimized as seen in previous representations. Instead, it was explicitly exposed and heightened. The ambivalence between Judith the Jewish hero, rescuer, virtuous woman and Judith he deceitful woman and brutal murderer was both denied and exploited by artist in the sixteenth and, specially, through the seventeenth century. They placed Judith’s figure on both extremes, and even played with the often porous border in between, adapting and shaping her image to fit different purposes and meanings.

 On one side, Judith temperance and Christian virtues continued to be celebrated, her story was included in comportment literature addressed to women and her example was promoted through sermons. Thus, Botticelli’s type of Judith kept existing in literature, and to some extent, in the visual arts. For instance, her femininity and passiveness is echoed in the strange detachment of Caravaggio’s Judith from the violent action she is executing.

 Furthermore, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw a vigorous debate about women potential political and heroic capabilities and their role in society. As part of the discussion started by Christine de Pizan’s writings of the previous century, the Querelle des Femmes or the women’s question, the visual media was an important media for the defense of female equality, as well as for its misogynist mockery. In the first group were the cycles devoted to the women worthies in the renaissance and the Femme Forte  in the second part of the seventeenth century, Judith was included in both categories of female heroines.

 On the other hand, Judith’s figure was equally vilified as she started to be equaled to female Biblical figures as Eve or Delilah, whose negative reputation was linked to their deception of their male victims. This was parallel to the increasing sexualisation of her image, configuring Judith’s character as that of a dangerous woman, an example of women’s tendency to deceive and corrupt men.  Moreover, the prevalent use of an extreme chiaroscuro and the emphasis on the intimate nature of her representations visually doted her depictions of a sense of secrecy and even illicitness.

 Most importantly, not all of Judith representations of this period can be fully classified as representative of these opposites. The malleability that her figure acquired was explored by artists at different levels, producing images do not reflect clearly an entirely “positive” or “negative” side of Judith.  

Objects in this section

Caravaggio, “Judith beheading Holofernes”. 1599. Oil on canvas, 145 x 195 cm. Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome.

Caravaggio’s version of Judith decapitating Holofernes was painted in Rome as a commission fort the banker Ottavio Costa. This painting marked a turning point of Judith’s visual tradition as Judith’s story had never been depicted with such a level of terror and explicit violence.  This effect was emphasize by the use of innovative formal elements, such as the close visual plane and more importantly the use of drastic chiaroscuro, which became an extremely popular trend among European artists later known as Caravaggism.

 In this painting, Caravaggio creates an extreme contrast between the two main characters, Judith and Holofernes, which gave the painting a psychological dimension and emphasized the scene’s dramatism. Holofernes brutal and strong presence, his almost grotesque expression and the scandalous way in which his blood splashes are juxtaposed to the extremely delicate and almost emotionless figure of Judith.

She is not presented as a hero, nor as a villain. Her facial expression and posture create a contradictory effect: In spite of being explicitly shown as the executor of this brutal and violent action, she seems passive and evendetached from what is happening. 

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Rubens, “Judith with the Head of Holofernes”. c. 1616. Oil on canvas, 120 x 111 cm. Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig

In this panting Rubens presents a clearly vilified and menacing version of Judith. She stares straight at the viewer with a daring and impudent look, satisfied after the murdering of the enemy. Judith’s image is openly sinister and sexualized, the look in her eyes and her partial nudity emphasizes her sexual luring of Holofernes as the weapons she uses to overcome him. In this case, the roles have been interchanged: Judith is clearly a villain, a latent danger as she still holds the sword. 

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Johann Liss, “Judith in the Tent of Holofernes”. c. 1622. Oil on canvas, 128 x 99 cm. National Gallery, London.

 Johann Liss’ depiction of this subject a less familiar composition. The foreshortened body of Holofernes, presenting to the viewer his bloody, severed neck emphasizes the horror and shock of this scene. The brutality of the act she just committed; however, she is not shown as a vile or sexualized woman. Equally, her partial nudity is not openly seductive buy heroic, emphasizinf her strong body. This physical strength is echoed by her calm, yet defiant expression presents her as a self-reliant woman. Thus, although it is not clear is she is a hero or a villain, she is definitely a strong woman.

The posture of Holofernes body also suggests a previous physical struggle between both characters, stressing Judith’s active involvement in the decapitation.  

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Artemisia Gentileschi, "Judith and Holofernesslaying Holofernes" 1620-21, Oil on canvas, 162.5 x 199 cm. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

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Abraham Bosse, “Judith and Holofernes”. 1645. Engraving, 17 x11 cm. Metropolitan Museum, New York.

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