Yael and Sisera

Alessandro Turchi (1600-1610)

Yael or Jael is a character mentioned in the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible, as the heroine who killed Sisera to deliver Israel from the troops of king Jabin. She was the wife of Heber the Kenite.

Ottavio Vannini (1640s)

 God told Deborah (a prophetess and leader) that she would deliver Israel from Jabin. Deborah called Barak to make up an army to lead into battle against Jabin on the plain of Esdraelon. But Barak demanded that Deborah would accompany him into the battle. Deborah agreed but prophesied that the honour of the killing of the other army's captain would be given to a woman. Jabin's army was led by Sisera (Judg. 4:2), who fled the battle after all was lost.

Gregorio Lazzarin (second half of 17th c.)

Yael received the fleeing Sisera at the settlement of Heber on the plain of Zaanaim. Yael welcomed him into her tent with apparent hospitality. She 'gave him milk' 'in a lordly dish'. Having drunk the refreshing beverage, he lay down and soon sank into the sleep of the weary. While he lay asleep Yael crept stealthily up to him, holding a tent peg and a mallet. She drove it through his temples with such force that the peg pinned his head to the ground. As a result of the killing of Sisera, God gave the victory to Israel. Yael is considered "blessed", according to the text, because of her action.

Artemisia Gentileschi (1620)

There are many similarities with the Judith-Holofernes biblic story posted some years ago.
-A woman brings the end of a war killing the enemy leader by cheating him for fake familiarity
-The fatal strike is a gruesome action on the head of the victim.
-Also Artemisia Gentileschi found both of them interesting themes for expressing through her magnificent art her rage for her molesting and maltreatment by men in a male society of inferiority of women.

Palma il Giovane 1548–1628

Jacopo Amigoni (1739)

Jacopo Vignali (17th cent)

Judith beheads Holofernes

Artemisia Gentileschi (1614-1620)

Η βιβλική ιστορία της Ιουδίθ (Βιβλίο της Ιουδίθ) έχει περίπου ως εξής: Ηταν μια όμορφη εβραία χήρα, η οποία ανέλαβε να σώσει την πόλη της, η οποία κινδύνευε από τα ασσυριανά στρατεύματα του Ναβουχοδονόσορα υπό την ηγεσία του στρατηγού του Ολοφέρνη. Αυτή κατόρθωσε να διεισδύσει στο στρατόπεδο, δήθεν ως πληροφοριοδότης των Ασσυρίων και να σαγηνέψει τον στρατηγό με τα θέλγητρά της και βρίσκοντας την κατάλληλη ευκαιρία, ενώ αυτός κείτονταν μεθυσμένος στη σκηνή του, τον αποκεφαλίζει και μαζί με την υπηρέτριά της παίρνουν το κεφάλι και το δείχνουν περιχαρείς στους συμπολίτες τους. Με το χαμό του αρχηγού τους τα στρατεύματα των Ασσυρίων διαλύονται και σώζεται η πόλη.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1598-1599)

Αυτό το επεισόδιο έχει δώσει έμπνευση σε πολλούς πίνακες από την εποχή της Αναγέννησης μέχρι και σήμερα, με διάφορες απόψεις για αυτό. Είτε ο αποκεφαλισμός γίνεται σε πλήρη συνεργασία με την υπηρέτρια, είτε η Ιουδίθ είναι ντυμένη και με πολεμική στολή, είτε γυμνή ή ημίγυμνη στην προσπάθειά της να ξελογιάσει τον στρατηγό. Εδώ επιλέγω μερικούς από αυτούς που απεικονίζουν την δολοφονία του με τον πιο δραματικό τρόπο.

Francesco Furini (1636)

In the Book of Judith of Old Testament, the story revolves on Judith, a daring and beautiful widow, who is upset with her Jewish countrymen for not trusting God to deliver them from their foreign conquerors. She goes with her loyal maid to the camp of the enemy general, Holofernes, to whom she slowly ingratiates herself, promising him information on the Israelites. Gaining his trust, she is allowed access to his tent one night as he lies in a drunken stupor. She decapitates him, then takes his head back to her fearful countrymen. The Assyrians, having lost their leader, disperse, and Israel is saved. The account of the beheading of Holofernes by Judith is the subject of numerous depictions in painting and sculpture as a theme of sex and gory violence and of female power against males.

Trophime Bigot (1640)

Early Renaissance images of Judith tend to depict her as fully dressed and de-sexualized. Later Renaissance artists, showed a more sexualized Judith, a "seducer-assassin": "the very clothes that had been introduced into the iconography to stress her chastity become sexually charged as she exposes the gory head to the shocked but fascinated viewer," in the words of art critic Jonathan Jones. (Wikipedia)

Johann Liss (1622)

Lucas Cranach the Elder (1530) (two versions)

Valentin de Boulogne (1591-1632)

Nuremberg Chronicle (1493)