C2: Maiolica dish: Judith and Holofernes

This dish depicts the Biblical story of Judith and Holofernes. Judith has just decapitated Holofernes, in the company of her maid. This is a painterly treatment of the Apocryphal story of Israel’s salvation by God acting through the unlikely agency of a woman.
The Israel city of Bethulia, seen the in background, was put under siege by the Assyrian king, Nebuchadnezzar and his general Holofernes. Bethulia was weakened when its water supply was cut off, hence the significant presence of water in this image. Judith was a pious and beautiful widow. She was seen as an ambassador of chastity and even virginity; indeed the name ‘Bethulia’ is derived from the Hebrew word for virgin.

Judith dressed in her best finery and set out for the Assyrian camp, accompanied by her maid. Her claims of defection were accepted by Assyrian guards who led her to Holofernes. What follows in the biblical story includes some clear double-entendres, where Judith tells Holofernes of a plan she has to help him since 'God has sent me to do things with thee at which the whole world will be astonished'. Judith and her maid held themselves aloof from the camp for three days, eating only the kosher food they brought from Bethulia and moving from the tent provided by Holofernes only to bathe and pray in the evening. On the fourth evening, Holofernes held a banquet in his tent for the explicit purpose of seducing Judith. However, he fell unconscious after drinking too much.Judith then seized Holofernes’ sword, prays for strength and beheaded him with two strokes. The two women left with Hofernes' head hidden in a sack and returned to Bethulia. There, Judith revealed the head and claimed 'he wrought no deed of sin with me to defile me or cause me shame'.

The result was victory for the Israelites over the Assyrians. 

Judith represents a civic/political heroine. The story is often compared with David who overcomes his opponent Goliath with a single act of skill. In contrast Judith was only able to kill Holofernes by using her appearance and deceit.
Judith’s enlarged arm on this dish, both suggests God’s power in enabling a woman to perform with such strength and that Judith, a woman, would not have been able to kill Holofernes with normal feeble female strength. This would have been used in maiolica as an object to keep displayed around the house to remind brides and wives their allotted role as the ‘weaker vessel’.

Judith’s use of her feminine wiles was a common warning in the Renaissance that women represent sex which represents sin. She was a popular subject for women, particularly courtesans who would use maiolica dishes in which Judith appeared to promote an appropriate ambience of seduction in bedrooms, placed on the deep shelves formed by headboards. 
An identical, but reversed, copy of the figure of Judith can be found on a similar maiolica dish at the British Museum.