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contact:
malbon@vt.edu

Liliana M. Nutu is a graduate student in the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Sheffield; she serves as an editorial assistant for Biblical Interpretation.

Abstract: Judith and Salome are two biblical women that have played the muse to many artists through the centuries. Interestingly, while one is a righteous widow who saves her people from colonization by the Assyrians and the other is a young princess whose dance moves charm her stepfather, Herod, the two women have been confused. There is a common thread to both narratives, indeed, and in this case it seems to overpower the textual differences and command the hues for the interpretative lens. Judith and Salome are mostly remembered for making men’s heads roll, and many visual representations of the two depict them as femmes fatales par excellence. This paper looks at a number of artistic representations of Judith and Salome—from the Renaissance to the twentieth century—and investigates what gender, psychoanalytical and signification tensions are at play within the process of representation of the two characters.

2005, Philadelphia


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