Ad Blankestijn: Judith and Holofernes by Klimt (1901)

Judith I by Gustav Klimt shows us the half-naked upper body of a proud modern woman, who is evidently from the upper-classes. The half-closed eyes and the open mouth suggest an unmistakable eroticism. Her face has been rendered with photographic precision, and is shown against a luminous golden background that enhances her elegance, and sets-off her dark black hair. She wears a gold-inlaid collar, which creates a sharp separation between her head and her body. Over her right shoulder she wears a brown, semi-sheer garment. And then, when you look in the lower right-hand corner of the painting, you see (half hidden) that she is showing the cut-off head of a bearded man...

What are we seeing?

Judith I, officially "Judith und Holofernes" according to the inscription in the gold-colored frame (Klimt had the inscription made because many viewers wrongly thought the painting was of Salome with the head of John the Baptist), is an oil painting made by the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt in 1901. It depicts the biblical figure Judith holding the head of Holofernes after beheading him. The beheading has been frequently portrayed in art since the Renaissance, and Klimt himself would paint a second work on the same the subject in 1909. The work is in the collection of the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna.

According to the story, Judith, in her finest clothes, gained access to the residence of the Assyrian general Holofernes and then beheaded him because he threatened to overrun the Jewish people. In Renaissance painting and traditional iconography, Judith is usually depicted as a strong and determined woman, who risks her life to save her people. At the end of the nineteenth century, however, literature and the visual arts turned her into a femme fatale, a woman who took pleasure in the decapitation of the man she had previously seduced, as an example of independence and a threat to male chauvinism.

Klimt's portrait is a textbook example of this modern interpretation of the Judith figure. She is no longer the fighting woman who saves her people from the enemy, but a feared seductress. Her image has been transformed into an erotic, sensual symbol, which fits perfectly into the decadent aesthetic atmosphere that was prevalent at that time.

Klimt depicts Judith up to her waist, frontal and semi-naked, with her left breast visible and the other only slightly obscured by a transparent fabric. The half-closed eyes and the open mouth suggest an unmistakable eroticism. The lighting from below accentuates her features, emphasizing her sensual and triumphant facial expression. The focus on the Judith figure is striking. Nowhere is reference made to the other aspects of the Bible story. Only Holofernes' head is just visible as a marginal and unimportant detail, pushed to the edge of the work. It is entirely about her and the seductive but at the same time disastrous sensuality that radiates out of her.

It is assumed that the woman who modeled for Judith was Adele Bloch-Bauer, Klimt's patron and mistress (and the wife of a banker), who posed for him frequently in the period 1907-1912. The jeweled necklace is the same one that Bloch wears in the first portrait that Klimt painted of her in 1907 (see below). The relationship between the two is said to have begun around 1900 and may explain the deep erotic charge of the work, which became one of the most iconic works from the early twentieth century.

[Portrait of Adèle Bloch-Bauer (1904-1907) - note the necklace]

Judith

Judith ("woman from Judea") is the protagonist from the deuterocanonical book of the Bible of the same name. This means that the book is part of the Septuagint and the Old Testament in the Roman Catholic Church, but is seen as apocryphal by Protestants and Jews. The book as we know it is thought to be the Greek translation of a Hebrew or Aramaic original from around 100 BCE (in the Jewish Bible only texts which were available in the original Hebrew language were included). The author makes several historical errors - perhaps deliberately. For example, Nebuchadnezzar II was not king of Assyria, but king of Babylon, which conquered Judea in the sixth century BCE. The story is therefore in reality not about Nebuchadnezzar, but about the Seleucid king Demetrius I, who around 163 BCE sent his general Nikanor to Judea - that army was defeated and Nikanor was beheaded (the story occurs in 1 Maccabees 7). The writer ironically parodies that story, and makes the enemy into a much more formidable one.

The following account is from my article about Vivaldi's Juditha Triumphans, an oratorio about this subject included in my "Choral Masterworks" at this blog:

"The story tells how Judith, a Jewish widow, saves her people from the army of Nebuchadnezzar. The city of Betulia is besieged by the legendary Holofernes, an army commander who was commissioned by Nebuchadnezzar II to conquer the entire world. The huge Assyrian army moves west and seems invincible. The Israelites closed the passes, built fortifications on all the high mountain peaks, and erected obstacles in the plains. Then Holofernes cuts off the water supply to the city, in the hope that the inhabitants will perish of thirst and surrender.

The townspeople are suffering and despair of a happy ending. The beautiful, wealthy widow Judith and her servant Abra secretly make their way to the camp of general Holofernes pretending to sue for peace. Holofernes falls in love with Judith, and, after giving a feast in her honor in his tent, he falls into a drunken sleep. Judith seizes the opportunity and beheads him with his own sword.

"Then she came to the pillar of the bed, which was at Holofernes' head, and took down his fauchion (short sword) from thence, And approached to his bed, and took hold of the hair of his head, and said, Strengthen me, O Lord God of Israel, this day. And she smote twice upon his neck with all her might, and she took away his head from him. And tumbled his body down from the bed, and pulled down the canopy from the pillars; and anon after she went forth, and gave Holofernes his head to her maid; And she put it in her bag of meat..."

[Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes (1612-13)]

Judith and Abra manage to escape back to their city. The besiegers become confused when they see Holofernes' head displayed on the city wall, and the citizens immediately attack and drive away the leaderless and demoralized Assyrians. The story of Judith is one of the few in the Bible where the power of woman exceeds that of man!

Many artists were inspired by the dramatic story of Judith. Donatello was the first artist to cast a bronze sculpture, for the palace garden of the Medici; Michelangelo painted Judith in a corner of the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. Lucas Cranach, Botticelli, Paolo Veronese and Caravaggio also painted Judith. The gory theme was very popular around 1600, especially among Caravagists: Cristofano Allori created the work Judith with the Head of Holofernes around 1610, which depicts Judith with Holofernes' head in her left hand. Caravaggio himself also painted the canvas Judith beheading Holofernes. Judith beheads Holofernes is a famous painting by the Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi (see above). And more recently, Gustav Klimt painted a Judith holding the head of Holofernes; he even made two paintings about her, Judith I and Judith II."

The wonderful thing is that Klimt wholly concentrates on Judith as a sort of erotic explosion - he doesn't even let us see a weapon, and Holofernes' head is shown almost as an afterthought.

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was the best-known representative of Viennese Art Nouveau and founding president of the Vienna Secession (Wiener Jugendstil). Characteristic of his later works, for which he became best known, is the "decorative ornamentalism" (in which he often also worked with gold leaf) and the suggestive-erotic symbolism. He mainly made a name for himself with his portraits of women and allegorical works. Klimt's art emerged during an artistic heyday in Belle Epoque Vienna. His oeuvre is considered exemplary of the tension between conservatism and the urge for progress at the time.

During the Belle Époque, Vienna, the capital of Austria-Hungary, was a dynamic, cosmopolitan metropolis with around two million inhabitants. People lived there from all parts of the empire and of all races and languages. The advancing industrialization created a strong and wealthy citizen class, causing the city to grow into a center of elegance, luxury and entertainment.

At the same time, a cultural crisis was also palpable in fin de siècle Vienna, which was associated with the decline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was a city full of paradoxes, where splendid balls were organized and traditions were maintained that were intended to disguise the emerging changes ("modernity"), but within which social contradictions became increasingly noticeable. Around 1900, this tension between conservatism and the urge for progress proved to be an excellent breeding ground for a whole generation of artists, poets, architects and scientists, who broke new ground on the threshold of a new century. They included the composers Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schönberg, the writer Arthur Schnitzler, the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and various painters, such as Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Klimt in particular managed to bridge the gap between two centuries, the old world and the new, with his work.

Trained as an academic painter, and also popular as a portraitist of the upper classes, Klimt made a radical break with tradition halfway through his life in search of innovation. As the main initiator of the Secession movement, he opted for a completely personal and unique style, which was a synthesis of a multitude of influences, such as decorative art, Japanese ukiyo-e prints, the aesthetic art of the Pre-Raphaelites and Symbolist art. In this way he created an ultimately personal aesthetic beauty, related to Art Nouveau.

[Judith II by Klimt (1909) - this painting is much less powerful than Judith I
and looses itself in sheer decorativeness.
Also, Judith looks aggressive rather than erotic.]

[Incorporates some information and texts from the English and Dutch Wikipedia]