Vasari’s Judith and Holofernes
Giorgio Vasari’s painting Judith and Holofernes, from the year 1554, depicts the most dramatic scene from The Book of Judith, a deuterocanonical book from the Old Testament. In the biblical story Judith— a young, beautiful, very religious, Jewish, widow from the town of Bethulia— beheads Holofernes, the general of an Assyrian army sent by Nebuchadnezzar to starve out and take over Israel. Judith leaves the besieged city with her maid, pretending to be scared and tells Holofernes that he will be victorious and gains his trust. After a large feast Judith is invited into Holofernes tent, where he is in a drunken stupor. She then cuts off his head with his own sword and brings the head to Israel. The head is hung up and the army disperses, saving the city.
Vasari’s painting is overflowing with symbolism, allusions, and metaphors along with many attributes associated with Mannerism, the predominate artistic style in Italy in the 16th Century. As laid out by Encyclopedia Britannica…
Mannerist artists evolved a style that is characterized by artificiality and artiness, by a thoroughly self-conscious cultivation of elegance and technical facility, and by a sophisticated indulgence in the bizarre. The figures in Mannerist works frequently have graceful but queerly elongated limbs, small heads, and stylized facial features, while their poses seem difficult or contrived. The deep, linear perspectival space of High Renaissance painting is flattened and obscured so that the figures appear as a decorative arrangement of forms in front of a flat background of indeterminate dimensions. Mannerists sought a continuous refinement of form and concept, pushing exaggeration and contrast to great limits. The results included strange and constricting spatial relationships, jarring juxtapositions of intense and unnatural colours, an emphasis on abnormalities of scale, a sometimes totally irrational mix of classical motifs and other visual references to the antique, and inventive and grotesque pictorial fantasies.
Vasari’s painting fits this definition almost perfectly. The figures are rendered fairly realistically and done so quite well, as one can tell Vasari is a talented artist. Judith’s arms and back are very muscular and disproportionally large and Holofernes pose seems to be somewhat strange. His head is low, despite Judith pulling his head up by his hair, and his back arched, almost as if he there are multiple pillows underneath is stomach elevating only his back. The background is dark and flat while the figures are much lighter in color, creating a great contrast. The figures in the painting also create a circular arrangement in which your eyes follow repeatedly. The viewer’s eyes follow Judith and her maid’s gazes, along with Judith’s arm, down to Holofernes head then to Judith’s hand, gripping his curly grey hair. The viewer then moves their eyes across Holofernes’ hand and arm to Judith’s elaborate skirt, then to her belt, and across her decorated, muscular shoulders. Ones’ view then goes up Judith’s right arm, across Holofernes’ sword and back to the faces of Judith and her maid, with their gazes upon Holofernes, completing the circle. This circular motion within the piece holds the viewer’s attention for a long time and allows one to fully soak in all of the details.
Vasari was born on July 30th in 1511 in the town of Arezzo in Italy. He studied and lived in Florence, where he was loved by his community of fellow artists and took pleasure in the friendship and patronage of the infamous Medici family, until his death on the 27th of June in 1574. Vasari was an architect, historian, painter, printmaker, and writer. He studied with many famous, remarkable, and talented artists such as Andrea del Sarto and Michelangelo. He is most known for his massive book “Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects” in which Vasari offers his own history of Western art, coins the term Renaissance, and includes a series of artist biographies, along with his own autobiography. Despite the fact that Vasari's biographies are infused with gossip and the book contains few facts with questionable veracity, it was— and continues to be— very influential, as it is the first example of modern historiography and has given substantial insight on many Italian artists. Vasari was very educated and— being that he was a historian— knew a significant amount about mythology, the city of Florence, Christianity, Paganism, and art.
Vasari’s extensive education and background is thoroughly displayed in his piece, as it includes lots of symbolism, allusions, and metaphors referring to and borrowing from many topics and artists. Taking precedent from Donatello’s bronze statue entitled Judith, Vasari includes lots of detail and ornamentation on Judith. Her multi-tiered, high-waisted long skirt and decorated girdle shows both modesty and chastity while the top of her shirt— which resembles a classical piece of armor worn by military men known as a cuirass— highlights her bare muscular shoulders, making her outfit much more sensual. On her left shoulder Judith has a medallion depicting Athena (Minerva)— the virgin, patron goddess and guardian of Athens with attributes of wisdom, warfare, learning, and civil society. Judith’s hair, with its braids and vail intertwined, loosely represents a helmet, this not only shows how she is a warrior woman but also connects her once again to Athena as she is usually depicted wearing one. Vasari borrowed characteristics from Michelangelo’s painting, Libyan Sibyl, from the Sistine Chapel for Judith’s exposed shoulders and twisted form. Her muscular, manly shoulders represent those of the semi-divine, left-handed, son of Zeus, Heracles (Hercules) who was seen as the defender of earth and served as the Pagan guardian of Florence, similarly to how David did for Christians. Throughout The 12 Labors of Hercules Athena helps Heracles many times and serves as his protector, while he kills monsters and other large beasts. By putting Athena on Judith’s shoulder and making Judith’s shoulders resemble that of Heracles, Vasari is having Athena look over Heracles once again. Vasari is connecting Judith to Heracles, while simultaneously connecting her to Athena, calling her the protector or guardian of Israel and Holofernes to that of a monster who represents tyranny. In doing so Vasari is making a statement: under the guidance of God, with his wisdom and power, one is able to complete miraculous tasks, even ones that are deemed as morally bad, to further benefit god and humankind.
In this painting traditional characteristics of Mannerism like intellectual aestheticism, stylized body features, and the mix classical motifs with antiquity, are displayed. Vasari combines Greek and Roman mythology with a Judeo-Christian heroine and in doing so fuses a pious, Jewish widow with a godly woman warrior while also fusing the classical world and mythological ancestry. He juxtaposes masculinity and femininity, eroticism and prudishness, and good and evil. His display of Judith as a heroic and victorious woman, with soft and graceful beauty, in a male’s role plays with the ambiguity of male and female imagery. He does so while borrowing from, and alluding to, techniques; styles; and allusions employed by other artists. Vasari’s Judith and Holofernes is a masterpiece filled with deep intermingled symbols and metaphors while mixing together antiquity, Mannerism, and various cultures.