Sacred Prostitute

Salome and Judith

Nigel Bruce

• 1 min read
Salome and Judith
Titian: "Salome with the Head of John the Baptist" (circa 1515) in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj - on the Via del Corso, Rome.

Above is a painting of Salome holding the severed head of John the Baptist, by Titian early in his career, around 1515. Or at least that is the popular view. She appears in a sensual madonna-like pose. An alternative view argues that it is in fact Judith with the Head of Holofernes, another good Jewish girl who was even more popular at the time (in the works of Donatello, Caravaggio, Rubens and others). Whoever she is, she is relatively demure compared with Titian's later paintings of the Venus of Urbino, Mary Magdalene and so on.

Images of Judith, however, tend to be more warrior-like. This is Donatello's Judith:

Donatello: "Judith and Holofernes" (circa 1455), Sala dei Gigli, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.

This is Lucas Cranach the Elder's Judith with the Head of Holofernes (around 1530), one of several versions he painted.

Cranach-Judith-Holofernes
In the Jagdschloss Grunewald in Berlin.

Whatever is going on here, Judith, Salome and beheadings were a certainly a popular theme of the time, especially by Caravaggio (here). A series of such paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi can be seen here.

Gustav Klimt's Judith and Holofernes (1901) is here. Franz von Stuck contributed his idea of Judith killing Holofernes in 1927: