Donatello's bronze David and Judith as Metaphors of Medici rule in Florence - Bibliography

Judith as a Tyrant Slayer

David and Judith are partners in meaning, which provides a rationale for their pairing. Both were Old Testament heroes and traditionally linked as saviors of the Jewish people in Jewish and Christian imagery (as in an early medieval fresco at the church of S. Maria Antiqua, Rome, or on Lorenzo Ghiberti's East Doors for the Baptistery, where the statuette of Judith is placed in a niche next to the relief of David Killing Goliath). (21) This partially explains their choice for the public spaces of the Medici Palace, but there were additional reasons for linking the two.

Unlike David, Judith had not been politically associated with Florence, but the textual source, the apocryphal Old Testament Book of Judith, certainly lent itself to a political interpretation and was written to inspire Jewish patriotism. (22) In the medieval period Jewish and Christian writers alike interpreted Judith as a moral, religious, and political heroine. In Christian symbolic thought her victory over Holofernes was elaborated as the triumph of virtue, specified variously as self-control, chastity, or humility, over the vices of licentiousness and pride. In visual representations of Judith and Holofernes, which are usually found among manuscript illustrations of cycles of the virtues, she stands powerful over Holofernes, holding his sword in one hand and his head by the hair in the other. Associations with these virtues meant that Judith even came to be regarded as a type of the Virgin and of the Church. (23)

In the bronze by Donatello, the depiction of Judith and Holofernes continues these traditions. Judith's virtue is indicated by the demure clothing and veil that cover her from head to toe while Holofernes, in contrast, is almost naked. (24) His nudity and drunkenness and the cushion on which he is propped identify Holofernes as a figure of Lust and Licentiousness, whereas Judith represents Chastity. (25) The medallion Holofernes wears, which has swung around to his slumping bare back, depicts a galloping horse, symbolic of Pride or Superbia, the vice traditionally defeated by Humility, represented by Judith. (26)

Judith's valiant act of decapitating Holofernes is dramatically emphasized by Donatello, who created the first (and only) representation in monumental sculpture of this moment. Equally unprecedented is Donatello's narration of the actual killing. Rather than interpreting the confrontation between Judith and Holofernes in the traditional emblematic language of Judith standing motionless over the fallen Holofernes, Donatello for the first time depicted the grisly detail of Judith's delivering a second blow to Holofernes, the one that results in his decapitation. The canopy she has ripped from Holofernes' bed (and later triumphantly presents in the Temple at Jerusalem) is wound through his hair in her hand and around her upper back and thighs (Figs. 5, 6). (27) The visual effect of these features encourages the spectator to circle the sculpture in order to appreciate gradually how the complex intertwining of the protagonists' bodies connotes their physical intimacy, and finally to confront the psychological nuan ces of Judith's expression of horrifying calm and steadfast resolve (Fig. 7). Judith raises Holofernes' scimitar high over her head and is poised to attack again. Vestiges on the weapon indicate that it was entirely gilded, and so this dramatic fulcrum of the sculpture must have shone in the garden sunlight at the statue's pinnacle, emphasizing the impending movement of Judith's arm. (28) To ensure a deadly cut, Judith steadies Holofernes' unconscious form by straddling his bare chest, bracing his head against her thigh, standing on his wrist, and grabbing his hair tightly. She has already opened a huge gash in his neck, and his head is collapsed unnaturally on his shoulders.