Similarities Between Jael And Judith Beheading Holofernes

In both Jael and Sisera and Judith Beheading Holofernes, the women appear in dominant positions over the men. However, the two women are presented very differently in the works. Both illustrate very similar Old Testament stories which involve some moral ambiguity surrounding the actions of the heroines. They offer commentary on the dubious nature of the murders in differing manners through their representations of the women, violence, bloodshed, and their settings. The engraving of Judith presents a complex and contradictory version of Judith and her murder while the woodcut of Jael simplifies the event and the murder of Sisera. The plots of both stories are almost identical. Jael is a Kenite woman, and Judith is an Israelite. Both women …show more content…
She sits in front of a large tree with Sisera’s head in front of her. Jael also displays no remorse as she prepares to hammer a nail or tent peg into sleeping Sisera’s head, in fact, her face is hardly discernible. Unlike Judith, she is fully clothed and is in no way sexualized. The lines that make up her figure are not as fine as those in Judith Beheading Holofernes, and the work overall is more roughly drawn. Due to this roughness of figure as well as her stance, Jael appears much less regal and dignified than Judith. Additionally, the hammer that Jael wields is far less decorous of a weapon than the finely wrought sword of Holofernes that Judith wields. The artist has chosen to depict the moment right before Jael strikes, with the hammer about to smash the nail or peg into Sisera’s temple. The brutality of what Jael is about to do is clear especially when compared to the relatively humane end Holofernes has met in the engraving. Here there is no sexual ambiguity as there was with Judith, yet the brutality is unmitigated as well by any regality or sense of heroism. In the engraving of Judith Beheading Holofernes, the background serves as a reminder of the importance of what Judith has done and sets it on a grand legendary scale. So while the heroines appear alike due to the similarity of their stories, their depictions in these works separate …show more content…
Holofernes seems to have suffered a single clean cut to the neck, and while the blood certainly seeps out, not as much attention is lavished on the grotesqueness of the event as in Artemisia Gentileschi’s Judith Slaying Holofernes. However, even this violence is altered by Judith’s expression. She is plainly repulsed by the action and by the head of Holofernes that dangles from her hand, yet she did the ghastly deed for the greater good. This is highlighted by the vast army of Holofernes in the background, whose tents stretch on far into the distance. This is a visual reminder that Judith has taken one life to save many, as well as her city and her religion. The engraving centers on the moment after the beheading rather than the gruesome act itself. Jael and Sisera focuses instead on the moment right before the murder, with her hammer positioned above Sisera to deliver the killing strike. By representing the moment before the murder, Altdorfer reduces the bloodiness of the scene. In fact, Sisera already looks dead, limp like a