The Triumph of Judith |
SOLIMENA’S JUDITH
by Susan Nurse
The reinstallation of the Fountain Court
after the installation of the 18th-century Italian Organ has brought
works from the Baroque Period together, including our Francesco Solimena, The Triumph of Judith (77.109). The painting, full of the drama of subject
matter and the use of chiaroscuro and undulating forms is very representative
of Baroque style. So who are the figures
in this dramatic painting? Is that a
woman holding a man’s severed head in the center of this work of art? No wonder she has everyone’s attention.
This is Judith, the female heroine from the
apocryphal “Book of Judith.” Her story
is extraordinary, and has the makings of a great source for visual images. We
are seeing the end of the story. Judith has charmed the Assyrian general
Holofernes, been admitted to his tent, and got him drunk. Then comes her
triumph over the enemy of her town, the Assyrians, through the murder of
Holofernes. This apocryphal tale is of a
Jewish widow who, with the help of God, slays the general by decapitating him
with his own sword, thereby saving her own town of Bethulia and the entire state of Israel . The word Bethulia, in Hebrew, is understood
to mean house of the Lord, that is, the Temple ,
while the name Judith alludes to the Jewish people as a whole. The moralistic message is of obedience to
God's law and unwavering faith, unlike the town elders who offered to surrender
the town.
Her story had been used in medieval times,
usually depicted in narratives, and like other Old Testament figures, Judith
and her triumph over Holofernes was interpreted as a pre-figuration of
Mary.
It was during the Counter Reformation that
the heroism of Judith took on a new importance.
Holofernes had to die because as a Gentile, he had attempted to force
the Jews to disobey the one true God.
Judith's fatal blow was done for the greater glory of this God, a deed
highly meaningful to the resurgence of the Catholic Church over the heresy of
Protestantism.
It should not be surprising, looking at
Solimina's work here, that his early training was in the elaborate ceiling
frescos done by his mentor, Luca Giordano.
(Note that The Entombment by
Giordano hangs next to the Solimena in the Fountain Court ). Notice how, in the painting, we seem to be
climbing a steep hill or stairway, looking up to see Judith with Holofernes's
head held in triumph against the sky.
Regardless of the turmoil and the bodies swirling around her, Judith
stands in a dramatic gesture, allowing us to focus on her and her prize.
Solimena lived from 1657-1747 and brought
great fame to the Naples
area during his lifetime. Arriving in
the city in 1674, Solimena at 17 was seen as a prodigy. His early work showed his preference for the
flowing robes and gestures of the
painterly style with complex spatial
arrangements that resulted from his father’s training. It was Solimena’s introduction to
Giordano that brought a new solidity of
forms and an increase in contrasts of light and shadow that are reflected in
his mature work, including our Judith. Another influence on Solimena was his trip to
Rome in
1700. His exposure to Guido Reni brought
more classicized elements to his work.
These changes in style can be seen in
Solimena’s most monumental work, the ceiling fresco in San Domenico Maggiore, Triumph
of the Dominican Order of 1709. The Madonna points to St. Dominic,
with a gesture clearly derivative of Giordano’s 1704 Triumph of Judith
(fresco Chapel of the Treasury in the Certosa di S. Martino, Naples ).
This gesture introduces the Saint to the Holy Trinity, while the Virtues
and angels drive out heretics, who literally fall towards the viewer. The hand of the Madonna is a focal point,
just as is Judith’s hand in our picture, painted less than 20 years later.
Solimena used hands throughout our work to
express surprise and wonder at the amazing spectacle before them: Judith, the
widow of Bethuli, has returned to the town with the head of the Assyrian
general!! Solimena emphasized Judith's
heroism by depicting her as an ordinary woman, not overly strong. In this way, he emphasized the core of the
story, that the hand of God must have helped her accomplish such an amazing
feat.
Solimena has created a variety of people
who look up to Judith, both literally and figuratively, setting her off as a
universal heroic figure. Young and old,
male and female, with different races represented, all swirl around the base of
our painting, their gestures and movement further emphasized by the movement of
the drapery of their clothes. Even the
elders, who had been willing to surrender the town, are awe- struck with the
event that has taken place. They can no longer deny that a lone woman has done
what they were unable to do. Through faith in God, she saved the town and Israel itself.
The proof is before them.
Solimena did four other versions of this
same story, one of which is now in Gemaldegalerie of the Kunsthistorisches Museum ,
Vienna . That work, dated 1730, is more derivative of
his ceiling works. But while ceiling
size helped to dissipate a large number of figures, the number of figures in a
work similar in size to our own painting
makes the painting appear somewhat
cluttered. In MAG’s painting Judith is
not accentuated to the degree necessary to understand the significance of her
act of courage and the drama of the moment.
This painting is representative of the
power of the Baroque style at the hands of a Neapolitan master, Francesco
Solimena, and the representation of Judith as a heroic figure.
Sources- Curatorial files;
Carmen Bambach “A Taste for Angels: Neapolitan Painting in North
America , 1650-1750”; Stocker,
Margarita, Judith, Sexual Warrior: Women and Power in Western Culture, Yale University Press, 1998.
Susan Nurse is MAG’s Visual Resources Coordinator
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