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)

Werewolfs - Lycanthropy

Lucas Cranach the Elder "Werewolf" (1512)

A werewolf or lycanthrope, is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely, by being bitten or scratched by another werewolf, or after being placed under a curse. This transformation is often associated with the appearance of the full moon, as popularly noted by the medieval chronicler Gervase of Tilbury, and perhaps in earlier times among the ancient Greeks through the writings of Petronius.Werewolves are often attributed super-human strength and senses, far beyond those of both wolves or men.

An 18th century engraving of a werewolf

In Medieval Europe, the corpses of some people executed as werewolves were cremated rather than buried in order to prevent them from being resurrected as vampires. Before the end of the 19th century, the Greeks believed that the corpses of werewolves, if not destroyed, would return to life as vampires in the form of wolves or hyenas which prowled battlefields, drinking the blood of dying soldiers.

In the same vein, in some rural areas of Germany, Poland and Northern France, it was once believed that people who died in mortal sin came back to life as blood-drinking wolves. This differs from conventional werewolfery, where the creature is a living being rather than an undead apparition. These vampiric werewolves would return to their human corpse form at daylight. They were dealt with by decapitation with a spade and exorcism by the parish priest. The head would then be thrown into a stream, where the weight of its sins were thought to weigh it down. Sometimes, the same methods used to dispose of ordinary vampires would be used. (Wikipedia)