Works by Artemisia Gentileschi and Kehinde Wiley amp up the tension.
Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi and contemporary American painter Kehinde Wiley created their visions of the story of Judith and Holofernes four centuries apart.A period drama replete with danger, subterfuge and seduction — it’s hard to think of a more operatic plot than the tale of Judith and Holofernes.
What is often overlooked is the relationship that exists between the women in the story, between Judith and the female servant by her side. Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi seemed to be making a statement that women must stand together in her 17th-century version of Judith and Holofernes.displays the power of women’s solidarity in action. The painter positions the heroines on top of the Syrian general, straddling him in a clear role reversal. Working together, these women refuse to be subjugated. The servant uses all her might to hold down Holofernes on the bed.
Gentileschi, on the other hand, minimizes the physical differences between Judith and her comrade. Both women appear to be the same age. Both wear rich fabrics. Both are equally engaged in the physicality of the act. It is interesting to note that though beneath Judith in class, the servant is depicted above Judith in the composition, suggesting that these social differences are not to be essentialized.
Kehinde Wiley's 2012 version of Judith and Holofernes makes Judith a Black woman and Holofernes a white woman. The painting prompted outrage among some viewers when it debuted at the North Carolina Museum of Art. In placing a white woman in the position of Holofernes, we are directly told to whom we are meant to offer our allegiance and admiration — and it’s not her. Black women standing up to white women, Wiley seems to say, is like a widow going up against a warlord.
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