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Judith at Holofernes’ Banquet Rembrandt van Rijn, 1634.
Presented by Teresa Posada, Curator of Flemish Painting and the Northern Schools up to 1700.
Today I will be talking about this painting, the only work by Rembrandt in the collection of the Museo del Prado
and also the only work by the artist in Spain.
As a result, this painting is particularly important in the context of Spanish collections,
given that Rembrandt, as you know, was the great Dutch master of the 17th century,
just as Rubens was for Flanders. Rembrandt was slightly younger than Rubens.
He was, as I say, the great Dutch master and one of the greatest masters of European painting.
So, what can we see in this scene? It was painted in 1634,
as the date alongside the signature records,
and was one of a series of heroines that Rembrandt painted between 1633 and 1636.
The series depicts both classical and biblical heroines.
Rembrandt presents an imposing, seated woman,
painted on a large scale and dressed in sumptuous clothes. The ermine collar is a sign of wealth and luxury.
It was in fact normally associated with royalty, as were the adornments including the pearls and gold chains.
The woman is sitting in an armchair of which the arms are visible. A young maid,
also richly dressed, approaches her and offers her a goblet.
This takes the form of a so-called “nautilus cup”, the name of which derived from the nautilus shell from which such objects were made.
Goblets of this type became extremely fashionable in the 17th century and were luxury items,
so their possession indicates extremely high social status.
The seated woman has one hand on her breast
and the other resting on the table on which there is an open book.
In the background is a servant who is quite different to the palace maid.
She is more of a middle-class, domestic servant
who is holding a cloth in her hands although this is difficult to make out.
The background has been painted over. Possibly an attempt was made to restore it that went wrong
and it was thus decided to paint it over in black,
or this decision may have been in response to late 19th- or early 20th-century fashion,
in Spain and elsewhere,
when it was considered that a black background was more in line with traditionally dark, 17th-century Spanish painting.
We might think then that the painting was made more “Spanish” and dramatic
through this black background against which the woman stands out like a flaming torch,
outlined alone against the blackness.
An old photograph of the painting from the late 19th century
reveals that the element is a half-open sack with a tassel hanging here.
In addition, the background servant is behind a curtain that is not now visible.
The curtain falls here and here: you might just be able to see it on that side.
The curtain also has that type of drawing. As I said, all this is only visible in the old photograph
but it is important for an understanding of the painting’s subject.
So, we might say that the woman in the painting is located inside a campaign tent.
In the background of the photograph it is possible to see light and sky
and the fact that the second servant was originally outside.
This is important when interpreting the painting’s subject.
For many years the subject was thought to be Queen Artemisia
at the moment of drinking the wine containing her husband’s ashes.
Artemisia was the wife of Mausolus who died in battle.
She was very much in love with him and had a huge tomb built for him,
the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. It is also said that she wished to drink his ashes
in order to become the living tomb of her husband and to die as well.
However, there is an element in the painting that does not fit with the iconography of Artemisia,
which is the fact that she does not have a crown, despite the presence of the ermine collar.
Furthermore, Artemisia was a weeping widow and this figure does not seem to be a widow or to be weeping.
She seems extremely proud. Above all, the humbler servant does not seem appropriate to a court
that was always painted by artists (including Rubens, for example)
as filled with luxury objects and extremely richly dressed figures.
In no case do we find a servant that does not fit in with the courtly atmosphere.
This allows us to think that what Rembrandt has actually depicted here
is the biblical story of Judith.
Judith arrived at Holofernes’ camp and put on her finest clothes.
Holofernes invited her to dine with him so she went (as the Bible recounts)
accompanied by a maid who brought a sack with their own food given that as Jews they could only eat certain foods.
However, this sack would also be the one used to hide the head of Holofernes
after Judith beheaded him, having made him drunk at the dinner.
This is the way the story is normally depicted
and the way you can see it in other paintings in this museum and in museums around the world.
The scene traditionally depicted is the beheading of Holofernes
and/or the subsequent escape of the two women with his head.
Rembrandt, however, always aimed to be original. He was a young painter
and at that period wished to prove that he was not only technically outstanding
but that he also knew how to present traditional subjects in a new way.
In 17th-century painting there was great appreciation
not just for the way of depicting narratives but for new ways of presenting them.
We should now consider why Rembrandt painted Judith
and why he chose this moment in the story, which is not the habitual one
and of which there are very few examples.
We generally find it in 16th-century engravings of biblical scenes
but Rembrandt is the only artist to have painted this moment.
The reason for the choice of subject and for Rembrandt’s use of it
relates to the fact that when the Dutch broke away from Flanders
and founded an independent nation in the late 16th century
they saw themselves as a new, chosen people and thus identified with the Jewish people,
with the Bible and the deeds recorded in it.
They considered themselves the new, chosen people who, with the grace of God,
had been able to free themselves from the Spanish yoke
and found a new society, as the Jews had done.
In this sense Judith, like other biblical women,
was one of the great heroines for the Dutch: the woman who liberated her people.
Many thanks for your interest.
Judith at Holofernes’ Banquet Rembrandt van Rijn, 1634.
Presented by Teresa Posada, Curator of Flemish Painting and the Northern Schools up to 1700.