Judith as Femme Fatale

Judith and Holofernes (1901) by the Austrian Symbolist and Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt (1862-1918).

Judith is lasciviously caressing the head of Holofernes. There is nothing historical in this painting - Judith is a modern woman, her hairstyle is that of the fin-de-siècle.
But real interesting is, that Klimt is mixing Judith and Salome. This woman showing the head as her trophy could be Salome as well. Both together become the symbol of the modern femme fatale.

Academic Delilah

Samson and Delilah (1878) by the French Academic Painter Alexandre Cabanel (1823-1889).

Cabanel was the preferred painter of Napoleon III and one of the leading representatives of the so called “L'art pompier”. He and William-Adolphe Bouguereau formed the strongest resistance against any modern art movement in the final decades of the 19th century.
His Delilah may serve as a good example for that pseudo-realistic art which is technically perfectly done and formed the culmination of academic art.

Pre-Raphaelite Jephthah

Jephthah (1867) by the English Pre-Raphaelite Painter John Everett Millais (1829–1896).

Millais focuses on the despair of the father. His daughter is seating on his lap. Gazing into the void she is trying to comfort her father. The whole picture is a mournfully scenery of desperation.

Nevertheless it’s interesting to observe the work which Millais invested in the exotic and historical details: the weapons, the furs, the music instruments and the dresses. So it’s a religious subject presented as a history painting.

Modern Bathsheba

Bathsheba (1875-77) by the French painter Paul Cézanne (1839-1906).

Cézanne is considered as a Post-Impressionist painter and a kind of bridge between Impressionism and modern art like Cubism. So it’s interesting how he treated here the old traditional subject, which so many artists had depicted before.

There is the nude Bathsheba exposing her body to the sun or to King David, who cannot be seen. But there is the maidservant, probably as a kind of label that this is Bathsheba. Different to nearly all of his colleagues Cézanne refrains from the cheap exploitation of the nude body. He reduces Bathsheba to colour and finally to an icon.

Divine Salvation

Hagar in the Wilderness (1835) by the French painter Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875).

Corot was a Realist painter and a leading member of the Barbizon school in mid-nineteenth century France. Therefore he focused normally on landscape painting. The landscape is also dominating this painting, Hagar and her son Ishmael are only little figures in the vast desert. In a central position the rescuing angel is arriving. With all that naturalism Hagar’s theatrical pose annoys a little.

Seduced Lot

Lot and his daughters (1833) by the Italian painter Francesco Hayez (1791-1882).

Hayez did here a very traditional painting. In the back is Sodom burning and the statue of the mother could be seen. He focuses on Lot and his daughters who are all more or less naked. Lot looks very drunk, in front is a (wine-) jug and one of the daughters holds an empty cup. While Lot as the central figure seems nearly helpless, the two daughters are cool watching the effects of their intrigue.

Art Nouveau Salome

Salome (1906) by the Austrian painter Salome and print makers Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980).

Kokoschka started his studies at the Vienna School where he became a close friend of Gustav Klimt. But soon he lost his initial enthusiasm for Art Nouveau, he left Vienna and the and became one of the most important painters of the Expressionist era. But this Salome belongs still to his early Art Nouveau phase. It’s nearly pure ornament and symbol.