Judith bids farewell … for now

according to my count, this blog has covered 700 images of Judith in 681 posts over 784 days.  it has been a labor of love and learning, and i have enjoyed every minute.  there are still artworks of Judith to be discussed (although they have crappy images on the internet and little information about their creators or whereabouts).  and more importantly, there are still artworks of Judith to be created.

eh, i’ll skip being sappy or sentimental or philosophical or even humorous.  i’ve tried out all those persona across these posts. i feel like 700 images is a nice, round number and a good place to stop.

did i attain my goal of learning about Judith?  in spades.

did i attain my goal of learning about myself?  absolutely.

did i attain my goal of learning, period?  you can’t stop me.

i do own my name, embrace it and can be what it represents.  i can be the giggle-y girl in the poodle skirt or i can be the avenging Amazon with a fauchion.  or i can be naked.  Judith is all those things and more.

thanks for coming along on the journey.  and let me know if you encounter any Judith’s i haven’t met yet.

Bernardo Strozzi, “Judith with the Head of Holofernes,” Oil on canvas, 138 x 98.2 cm Christ Church, University of Oxford, Oxford, England UK

Unknown artist, “Judith and the Head of Holofernes,”    Oil on canvas, 110 x 115 cm, Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery, Plymouth, England, UK

Pedro Nuñez del Valle, “Judith and Her Maid Abra with the Head of Holofernes,” 1630, Oil on canvas, 88.5 x 108 cm, for sale by Caylus Anticuario S.A., Madrid, Spain

Circle of Carlo Saraceni, “Judith,” c.1600, Oil on canvas, 92 x 76 cm, auctioned by Christie’s 6/8/2002 (Lot 729)

Elizabeth Leslie Arnold, “Judith with the Head of Holofernes,” 1929, Oil & charcoal on canvas, 21.8 x 91.5 cm, University College London Art Museum, London, UK

 

Judith is timeless

Isaac Grunewald, “Judith II,” 1924, Oil on canvas, 64 x 54 cm, auctioned by Stockholms Auktionsverk, Modern Art, Oct 25–26, 2011 (Lot 700), Stockholm, Sweden

i was really surprised by this painting.   my first guess was: the work of a contemporary South American artist. Judith has the olive complexion, the massive dark hair, a stylish one-shouldered sheath in spicy tones, the gold loop earring and bangle bracelets of a Latin American style.  so imagine my astonishment to learn this is the work of a Swedish painter from 1924.  this depiction must have been shocking to the audience at that time, even in light of Fauvism, Cubism, and Expressionism.

and yet, this portrait highlights the fact that Judith is timeless.  her story has been told and retold, her motives re-imagined numerous times from saintly to slutty, her means interpreted from self-sacrificing to sadistic.  and when you think about the 700 depictions that have been covered in this blog, her story is downright scary.

so it is nice to still be surprised.  to find Judith can be recycled and come out fresh after all these years. to realize that after all these years, her final victory is being resilient.

 

 

Judith and the Backseat Driver

Garofalo, “Judith with the Head of Holofernes and Her Maidservant,” early 16th century, Oil on panel, 33.5 x 27 cm, Knole House, Kent, England, UK

i didn’t go to parochial school, but i’ll wager that this artist did. and he is suffering from PTSD after a run-in with one of his teachers.

Judith has apparently made it out of Holofernes’ camp and is thrilled to be on her way back to Bethulia.  she is so excited about her accomplishment that she has removed the severed head from the bag and is practically skipping down the road towards home.  but right behind her is the Maid, giving a frowny face and raising a pointy finger to the heavens – as if to say “Watch where you’re going!  Don’t be so full of yourself! You’re going to drop that thing and i’m not going to chase it down the hill!”

at least you can fire a maid.

 

Judith and the Melon

someone once called me “Pumpkin Head” because they thought my face is round. and maybe i used too much bronzer.  i thought the description was undeserved.

however, in this case, it appears Judith does actually have a pumpkin on her head.

Unknown artist, Lombard School, http://www.wikigallery.org

 

Now for something completely different (LXXXI)

one more! one more!!

how could i forget Judy Monroe?  how could you forget Judy Monroe?

in the musical A Chorus Line, Judy Monroe is a nervous, scatterbrained, gawky, tall, warm, and hopeful woman – who reflects on her problematic childhood during the audition in “Montage Part 3: Mother.”

enjoy Heather Parcells as Judy starting about 11m20s.  she is the redhead in the mauve leotard who acts like a Judy.

 

Judith has a brand new bag

what can you do after you determine that your butt looks big?

buy a new handbag, of course.

Dagmar Calais, “Judith and Holofernes,” 2008, Oil on canvas, 200 x 160 cm, http://www.dagmar-calais.de

 

Judith and the British Empire

i could continue to ask: DOES THIS MAKE MY BUTT LOOK BIG?

however, this is actually a posterior view of the Maid – not Judith, who is standing in the background with the fauchion – and i have tired of making cracks about butts.

so instead i would rather talk about Frank Brangwyn.

Frank Brangwyn, “Judith and Holofernes,” 1948, Oil on wood, 42 x 30.5 cm, William Morris Gallery, London, England, UK

imagine producing over 12,000 works across paintings, drawings, illustrations, lithographs, woodcuts, stained glass, furniture, ceramics, table glassware, interiors, and buildings. imagine mural commissions that cover over 22,000 square feet of canvas (1).  imagine being commissioned to paint 16 large works that cover 3,000 square feet of the Royal Gallery at the House of Lords at Westminster – and then having them refused for being “too colourful and lively” for the location.  imagine being the jack-of-all-trades, Frank Brangwyn.

The rejected murals – known as the British Empire Panels – were commissioned in 1924 to commemorate the First World War. Brangwyn, an official war artist, was selected and chose to create a “decorative painting representing various Dominions and parts of the British Empire.”

Brangwyn’s intention was to enliven the gloomy Royal Gallery with ‘decorative painting representing various Dominions and parts of the British Empire’. No geographical logic was intended; the panels have a spirit of fantasy showing a protected world of beauty and plenty, based artistically on Brangwyn’s many travels and also his studies of animals in London Zoo. (2)

obviously not the intention of the House of Lords, who rejected them after seven years of labor.  thus the panels were acquired for the Swansea Guildhall and installed in Brangwyn Hall in 1934, where this artistic achievement is enjoyed by the public on a daily basis. (3)

in order to see all 16 panels, go to BBC: Your Paintings – British Empire Panel.  they truly are an explosion of color and life and lushness that would have put the House of Lords in a stupor.  if they were not in a stupor already.

so much more fun than talking about the butt of Judith’s maid, don’t you think?

(1) Clifford Musgrave, ‘Sir Frank Brangwyn RA’, The Studio, April 1953, p136

(2) Frank Rutter, The British Empire Panels Designed For The House Of Lords By Frank Brangwyn, R.A. Essex: F. Lewis, 1933.

(3) City and County of Swansea, British Empire Panels – Sir Frank Brangwyn R.A.