Seduction and persuasion, female weapons ?

When women influenced politics, they were entering a field considered at that time as essentially male. However, their mediation was not always criticized. Indeed, the main factor to judge of its effect was the benefice it could bring to the greater good. If Eve’s action caused the expulsion of mankind from Heaven, a brave woman as Judith saved her people from foreign persecution. Painters reflected on that ambivalence through the relation between women and weapons, traditionally linked with men.

The women portrayed here know their beauty, and can use it as a weapon either for good or for evil.

Cesare da Sesto (1447-1523) opted for the biblical figure of Salome to emphasize the effect of wicked seduction. Salome seduced Herod by dancing. As a reward, she asked for the head of saint John the Baptist. A true “femme fatale”, she reveals us the bloody result of her seduction with a proud gesture of the hand.

But seduction is not doomed to be evil. Maerten de Vos (1532-1603) chose to represent the allegory of Peace with two women embracing each other. They can either be Venus seducing Bellona, the Roman goddess of war, or Justice kissed by Peace. The adorned sword and the shining helmet are abandonned for a laurel branch. Just as Salome presents us the head of saint John, the placid Bellona (or Justice) points out her discarded weapons.