2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
The image of Judith has always enjoyed a special creative interest among the artists of Western Europe. The plot of the famous biblical story was in great demand by painters of different eras and styles. One of these artists is Caravaggio.
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi di Caravaggio, a student of the Milanese school of painting of the 17th century, is considered one of the founders of realistic painting in Western Europe and a reforming artist.
Caravaggio lived in Rome for about fifteen years, but because of a murder during a duel, he was forced to hide, and fled first to M alta, where he ended up in prison, and then to the island of Sicily.
All Caravaggio's paintings are based on the play of light and shadow. They are simple in their construction and concise. The images of his works are expressive, dramatic and very emotional. There is an opinion that as a nature, the master used forbidden techniques - he painted alcoholics, drowned people, prostitutes, beggars …
Judith and Holofernes: images of biblical myth
In his painting "Judith and Holofernes" Caravaggio conveyed the content of the ancient biblical myth.
After the victory over the Medes, the Babylonian kingNebuchadnezzar decided to punish the peoples who refused to support his army at the right time. He summoned his commander named Holofernes to him and sent with an army under the walls of the Jewish city of Vetilui to destroy it. Approaching the city, Holofernes began to prepare for an assault, but changed his mind, as the Maovites showed him a source that brought water to the city. The Babylonians blocked the source and began to wait for the day when the inhabitants of Vetilui themselves would die of hunger and thirst. And so, when the townspeople could no longer endure, they began to reproach their ruler for the inaction. But he did not know what to answer them, and went for advice to a young rich widow named Judith, who spent all her days and nights in prayers to the Lord after the death of her husband in a tent on the roof of her own house. Hearing about what had happened, Judith offered not to rush and rely on the will of God. She volunteered to try to save her fellow citizens from the Babylonian army.
At night, together with the maid, she bagged food and went out the gate. Having reached the enemy camp, Judith asked for a meeting with Holofernes. She explained her visit by the stubbornness of the ruler and the fact that from hunger in the city they had already eaten all the sacred animals and the punishment of the Lord was not far off. And so she fled from Betilui to the camp of the Babylonians.
Holofernes invited him to live in his tent until the end of the confrontation. Judith agreed. After a magnificent feast, Holofernes and Judith retired to Holofernes' room, and when he fell asleep, drunk with wine, Judith pulled out a sword hidden behind a bedpost and cut off his head. She secretly left the tent of Holofernes, carrying his head. Waiting for her on the streetmaid. She hid her head in a bag of provisions, and the women quietly returned to the protection of their hometown.
In the morning, the townspeople began to prepare for an attack on the Babylonians. When they saw the detachments under construction, they rushed to Holofernes and found him dead and without a head. From fear, the Babylonian soldiers rushed to flee. So Judith saved her city with the help of God.
Judith and Holofernes in a painting by Caravaggio
What is the innovation of Caravaggio in this canvas? The fact is that usually in the paintings of other artists, the plot began from the moment when the murder of Holofernes had already happened, and Judith was standing with a severed head in her hand. In the same picture, the master refers to a detailed depiction of the very process of beheading the enemy by a brave and cold-blooded woman, a patriot, on whose determination and concentration the lives of all the inhabitants of her hometown depend.
The bright and rich coloring of Caravaggio's painting "Judith and Holofernes" enhances the contrast between the beauty of the young Judith and the dark and terrible, but righteous deed she does. The face of Holofernes is also written out with the smallest details, as if the author himself either was present at the event, or saw a similar "object" somewhere earlier and wrote it, if not from nature, then at least from memory.
"Judith and Holofernes" Caravaggio: a painting-resonance
The works of Caravaggio resonated with the habits and traditions of European society in the 17th century. Connoisseurs of artificial beauty, customers are not alwaysaccepted his work because of the unusual drama that kills their inner balance and calmness, eating away the harmony of the soul. They made us horrified and shudder from the pressure of drama, waves beating from the canvases. So is Caravaggio's Judith and Holofernes. You can often find an epithet in relation to her - "emotional knockdown". Like other canvases of the same plan, "Judith" retains the eternal vices and virtues of people and society that live among us to this day. That is why she still does not leave any viewer indifferent.
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