Gustav Klimt, “Judith II - Salome” Ca' Pesaro International Modern Art Gallery in Venice Italy

Judith II Salome Painting - Oil on Canvas (1.78 x 46 cm) 1909

Unlike the first Judith, Klimt's “Judith II Salome” has nothing erotic or sensual apart from her bare breasts.

This second Judith is a stern, nervous and tortured character with an extinct look, lost in his thoughts.

She is there, before us, but her spirit has remained behind, prisoner of the disgust of her terrible gesture, her hands clenched by the memory of the fatal moment when they beheaded General Holophernes.

Judith is still adorned with the gimmicks of seduction, clothes, beads and bracelets.

Yet, all the feminine charm she has used to seduce Holofernes to kill him, this charm fades in front of the horror of her crooked raptor fingers grabbed to the hair of the cut head she inserts into a bag.

After her crime, Judith's clenched hands reveal her state of mind, ready to tear herself darkened by despair.

Judith, the widow, saved her people and avenged her husband killed by the Assyrian general, but the realization of her revenge destroys her.

As a fierce predator, we see her full of strength, conscious and proud of her victory, while getting down in disarray after committing her crime.

The woman's dangerous side staged via the white and black sharp patterns of Judith's dress.

Here Klimt surpassed the biblical subject to show the ambiguity of female charm.

However, his life, work and relationship with his models show that he was the predator in his love relationships.

Klimt's Judith shows us the fatal woman, the idol adorned with jewels, the bare-breasted temptress capable of the worst.

The gallery of modern art of Ca' Pesaro in Venice acquired this painting immediately after its exhibition during the ninth Venice Biennale in 1910.

Judith II Salome