I'm a bit surprised I've received so few comments concerning Nate'’s claim that I have “a thing for severed heads.
Unfortunately, I can'’t completely deny that statement.
There are many interesting myths involving severed heads that I (for some strange reason) like to research.
I will try to somewhat explain this odd fascination.
The story that Nate mentioned is the apocryphal tale of Judith and Holofernes.
Judith was a respected and beautiful Israelite widow of the town of Bethulia.
Bethulia was besieged by the Assyrian general Holofernes, and Judith volunteered to save her town from destruction. She then dressed in her finest apparel, enlisted the help of her maid, and marched to the enemy camp.
There she told Holofernes she knew Bethulia was lost, and, in hopes that she would be spared, she would inform him of the town'’s vulnerabilities.
Because Holofernes was entranced by Judith'’s beauty he allowed her to stay in the camp and made plans to seduce her.
While dining with Judith, Holofernes became incredibly drunk, and in this state Judith beheaded Holofernes, and escaped with the head to her village.
Without their leader the Assyrian army was in chaos and abandoned Bethulia.
Judith was declared a hero and revered for the remainder of her life for single-handedly saving the village from the Assyrians.
The story of Judith and Holofernes is interesting because although Judith saves her village and is declared a hero, the victory is accomplished through the ambiguous means of seduction and deceit.
As you can imagine, artists struggled with how to depict Judith.
Who was this woman that was capable of murdering a general? And perhaps more importantly, what does a male artist make of a woman capable of beheading a man?
Here's Botticelli's Judith. Her maid carries Holofernes' head . Does this elegant, graceful Judith look like she has the strength, not to mention the guts, to kill Holofernes? Not really - maybe that's what made her such a threat.
Here's Michelangelo's Judith and her maidservant from the Sistine Chapel ceiling. There are some obvious similarities between the story of Judith and Holofernes and the story of David and Goliath. I think Michelangelo plays up that comparison with the inclusion of an enormous head.
Caravaggio's
Judith Slaying Holofernes is one of my favorites. I think her childlike innocence and ridiculous stance are Caravaggio's attempt to tame Judith. In this image, Caravaggio seems to say that Judith is incapable of violence unless she is guided and nearly completely controlled by her God.
I had to include one of Artemisia Gentileschi's
Judith Slaying Holofernes. What makes this violent image (and this isn't even her most gruesome depiction) so interesting is that it was painted by a woman, and her Judith definitely looks like more of a threat.
All of the images that I've posted so far are from the Italian Renaissance and Baroque periods. But the story of Judith and Holofernes has a long life. Just image what Freud does with this story in the early 20th century. I'll conclude with this very interesting image of Judith slaying Holofernes from a Gothic manuscript. I love Judith's angry face. And so, yes, I get excited every time I discovery a Judith and Holofernes I've never seen before.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I met JoLee's sister's boyfriend, Peter. He is working for a company called MoveMedia that creates video streaming for BYU TV and other channels. If you go to www.byu.tv you'll find that you can watch BYUTV live anytime you want. Moreover, you can watch archives and past general conference videos. By the way, you'll have to download a plug-in, to get this to work, but that shouldn't be hard.
...and this is the back.
