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Video: Favorite Old Testament heroines of artists of the past: How to recognize them
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
All classical European art is permeated with plots either from ancient mythology or from the Bible - especially the Old Testament. Already in our time, unfortunately, many do not understand the plots dedicated, for example, to the Old Testament female characters in famous paintings. Here are some canvases whose content is worth understanding.
Girl and old people
Artists wishing to paint nudity often resorted to the theme of two biblical women. They painted either Eve in the Garden of Eden, until the moment she ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge and was ashamed of her nakedness, or Susanna - a girl who was blackmailed by two lustful elderly men. The last plot is traditionally called "Susanna and the Elders".
Susanna was supposedly the daughter-in-law of King Joachim - however, this assumption is based only on the name of her husband, also Joachim. When she was bathing in her closed garden, two elders spied on her secretly from everyone and from each other. This lasted quite a long time, until one day, when Susanna began to get ready for home (or, rather, she had already gone, but the artists preferred the first version), the elders did not approach her with a demand: either she would sleep with them, or they would announce that they saw how a young man came to see her. In the second case, Susanna was threatened with stoning.
Susanna decides to refuse them, and they fulfill the threat. They begin to judge the woman, but the young prophet Daniel intervenes in the case. He surprises everyone by dividing the elders and interrogating each one separately, so that one could not hear what the other had to say. The testimonies of the elders diverge, they are recognized as liars who wanted to shed innocent blood, and they are executed. This story is the first appearance of the prophet Daniel in the Old Testament. It was after her that Daniel became a famous and respected person among the Jews.
Susanna has become a symbol of what is better to choose in favor of true piety than a godly but false reputation.
The greatest sin of the holy king
There is another woman from the Old Testament who was portrayed as bathing and naked. This is Bathsheba, and she can be distinguished from Susanna by the fact that she is either not spied on at all, or it is done by one man, not two. Bathsheba was the wife of a man named Uriah, who served in the army of King David. Once, walking on the roof of the palace, David saw Bathsheba washing in the garden, and he longed for her.
David first entered into an intimate relationship with Bathsheba, and then ordered that Uriah be thrown into the thick of the battle and after that leave him there alone so that Bathsheba would become a widow, and then married a woman who had survived the loss. The legendary King Solomon became their son. In our time, many are inclined to see in the history of Bathsheba echoes of the myths about Shavushka, the Hittite goddess of love. To somehow smooth out the impression of the unsightly act of the holy king, interpreters either pay attention to his sincere repentance, in which believers should become like David, or consider the story to be a story about the relationship between Christ and the church (here it is difficult and long to explain).
Woman with a man's head
In the history of painting, many paintings have appeared in which a young woman either cuts off a man's head, or solemnly carries it. Often a servant is also with her, and a sword can be seen in her hand. This is Judith, the heroine of the Old Testament, who has become a symbol of patriotism.
According to the Old Testament, the Assyrian military leader Holofernes laid siege to the city of Bethulia, blocking access to the only source of water. One of the inhabitants of the city, putting on the best clothes and taking with her a servant, went through the army of the Assyrians to the tent of Holofernes, ostensibly in order to inform how quickly to take the city. Holofernes promises Judith immunity, but tries to get her drunk in order to get hold of her. As a result, it is Judith who solders Holofernes, and then cuts off his head. Together with the maid, they hide the commander's head in a bag of food and triumphantly return to their hometown.
Seeing the head of Holofernes on the city wall, the Assyrians were in disarray. It was then that the Jews attacked them - and won a crushing victory.
"Doubles" of Judith
There is one more plot with a man's head in the hands of a woman - we are talking about Salome and the head of John the Baptist, but this is already a New Testament plot. According to him, John the Baptist exposed the debauchery of Salome's mother, Herodias, and she persuaded her daughter to dance in front of her stepfather, Tsar Herod Antipas, on her birthday. According to custom, the king, showing that he was pleased with the dance of his stepdaughter, invited her to ask for anything as a reward, and Salome, as her mother taught her, demanded the execution of John.
Traditionally, it is also believed, although not all interpreters agree with this, that Herod Antipas promised Salome an award because he lost his head from some particularly obscene dance. Because of this, Salome herself is often depicted dancing naked. In fact, in the countries of the Middle East, the custom was in use when, in response to gifts from relatives on his birthday, the king gave gifts, and often offered exactly the fulfillment of desire. Salome, depending on the era, was perceived as an example of how innocence can contribute to vice, then as a young insidious temptress.
Sometimes an inexperienced viewer confuses Jael with Judith - a woman who also kills a man in the paintings. Her sacrifice is the Canaanite commander Sisera, but Jael, unlike Judith, uses not a sword, but a hammer, hammering a stake from the tent in Sisera's head. Despite the patriotism, Jaili's act does not seem to be the most highly moral, because at first she hid Sisera in her tent - that is, the customs of hospitality should have extended to him.
Famous artists tell Bible stories in their paintings, generally a large and very interesting topic.
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