Cleansing the Social Body: Andrea Mantegna’s: Judith and the Moor (1490–1505)

Summary

One of the most violent religious scenes painted during the fifteenth century was the decapitation of the Assyrian general Holofernes by the Jewish protagonist Judith. According to the (apocryphal) biblical narrative of the Book of Judith, the heroine captured Holofernes's interest because of her beauty and skill with words. When the general invited her to dine with him, she eluded his intention to rape her and instead proceeded to decapitate the drunken Holofernes in his tent; Judith and her maidservant Abra returned to their community, the city of Bethulia, flaunting the head of Holofernes. Demoralized by the slaying of their leader, the Assyrian soldiers were defeated by the people of Bethulia. The depiction of this event as a dangerous sexual encounter placed feminine sexual wiles in the center of a national struggle between Jews and Assyrians about religious and political ideology.

The Book of Judith challenged generally accepted female norms by its subversion of male power (as demonstrated by Holofernes) through Judith's unconventional sexual behavior, but some commentaries argue that her action was appropriate in the context of war. The communal fabric of the Jewish nation was threatened by its dependence on foreign powers; in Judith's abandoning her modest role as a pious, chaste widow, she assumed the role of heroine and leader of her besieged people. The valiant woman's reliance on God's direction and favor enabled her to enter public life, to respond with courage and resourcefulness to the community's danger, and to initiate a cleansing of the social body (the Jewish community) through her new social role. Adherence to ritual bathing and strict observance of dietary laws were outward signs of her attentiveness to God's commands, and these signs also made visible her separateness from the Assyrians. To achieve her righteous goal, Judith used disingenuous language and behavior in her speech, placing the onus of correct understanding on Holofernes.

However, her ability to slay the general depended upon God's assistance and approval, for he alone enabled her to overcome her female weakness, which was shown in the biblical text by her inability to decapitate the general with one blow of the sword.