Beschreibung:

45 : 34 cm. Original photoengraving.

Bemerkung:

Contemporary, beautiful photoengraving of Klimt's famous Judith. Published in the book 'Ars Nova' in 1901, shortly after Klimt finished the painting. In perfect condition. Judith and the Head of Holofernes (also known as Judith I, German: Judith und Holofernes)is an oil painting by Gustav Klimt, painted in 1901. It depicts the biblical figure Judith holding the head of Holofernes after beheading him. The beheading and its aftermath have been commonly portrayed in art since the Renaissance. Judith was the biblical heroine who seduced and then decapitated General Holofernes in order to save her home city of Bethulia from destruction by the Assyrian army. When Klimt addressed the biblical theme of Judith, the historical course of art had already codified its main interpretation and preferred representation. Many paintings exist describing the episode in a heroic manner, especially expressing Judith's courage and virtuous nature. Judith appears as God's instrument of salvation, but the violence of her action cannot be denied and is dramatically shown in Caravaggio's rendering, as well as those of Gentileschi and Bigot. Other representations have depicted the subsequent moment, when a dazed Judith holds Holofernes' severed head, as Moreau and Allori anticipate in their suggestive mythological paintings. Klimt deliberately ignores any narrative reference whatsoever and concentrates his pictorial rendering solely on to Judith, so much so that he cuts off Holofernes' head at the right margin. And there is no trace of a bloodied sword as if the heroine would have used a different weapon: an omission that legitimates association with Salome. The moment preceding the killing ? the seduction of Nebuchadnezzar's general ? seems to coalesce with the conclusive part of the story.