Klimt, Gustav (2) 구스타프 클림트

 

 

 

 

 

Gustav Klimt 1862 – 1918

Judith I

oil on canvas (84 × 42 cm) — 1901

Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna

 

This work is linked to Judith 13:9

9. 그러고 나서 그의 몸뚱이를 침상에서 굴려 버리고, 닫집을 기둥에서 뽑아 내렸다. 잠시 뒤에 유딧은 밖으로 나가 홀로헤르메스의 머리를 자기 시녀에게 넘겼다.

 

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Dressed in a beautiful gown the widow Judith succeeds in seducing the enemy warlord Holofernes. In his tent she decapitates him.

Klimt emphasized the erotic tension of the moment. His Judith seems to be in ecstasy: eyes half closed, open mouth, her dress in disarray. She is a femme fatale: a dominant woman who uses her beauty in order to humiliate a man.

The artist was obviously fascinated by the subject of Death and Sexuality, or Eros and Thanatos. Many contemporaries, such as Sigmund Freud, shared his interest.

The work is somewhat like a Byzantine icon, with lavish use of gold leaf in the background and on the Jugendstil frame. The frame was made by Gustav's brother Georg.

This is the Vienna version. There is an almost identical version in the Galerie Vytvarneho Umeni, Ostrava, Czech Republic, where the dress is more blue. Eight years on Klimt would make another Judith.

 

 

 

 

Gustav Klimt 1862 – 1918

Judith II (Salome)

oil on canvas (178 × 46 cm) — 1909

Galleria d'Arte Moderna - Cà Pesaro, Venice

 

This work is linked to Judith 13:9

 

For this version of Judith Klimt used a different style than in his 1901 Judith. This work tends to cubism, with all the colorful layers. But natural perspective is still present, contrary to cubist works.

Judith's glare is colder than in the 1901 version. But her overall posture still shows the satisfaction Klimt thinks she got from decapitating Holofernes.

The work is also known as Salome, after the stepdaughter who demanded and got the head of John the Baptist.