"Judith" by Lucas Cranach the Elder. The Painting at the Cost of a Human's Life. (NSFW)
The princess Sibylle of Cleves loved to pose but not to any artist but only to Lucas Cranach.
She was in love with him and in addition she often got little elegant gifts from him like luxurious hats or silver bracelets. The artist always dressed her before he had her sit in the center of his workshop. And then another favourite part of hers started - to listen to his capturing stories.
He decided to do a painting of a Bible story - Judith with a head of Holofernes.
Once the Hebrew city Bethulia was attacked by the troops of king Nebuchadnezzar under the command of Holfernes. The siege of the town lasted 12 days then the water ran out. Judith, a rich and beautiful widow, took off her mourning clothes, washed, moistened her body with fragrances, put on her best dress and decorated herself with jewelries. She, gorgeous and magnificent, went to the enemies' camp. The guards stopped her and brought to the tent of Holofernes. He was conquered by her beauty. Judith told him that her coming to him was God's will and she needed to inform him on his impending victory. Happy Holofernes spent three days and nights with Judith and on the fourth night she cut off his head with his own sword and came back to Bethulia to share the news with her fellow citizens. After the Assyrians learnt that their leader was dead they panicked and ran away leaving all the stolen property. The city's defenders followed them and killed almost all of them. For Judith's heroism she got all treasures that belonged to Holofernes.
The princess listened to Cranach with horror and excitement. Cranach quickly used the impression on her face. For the sake of her people Judith sacrificed her honour. The victory was achieved by betrayal and an enamored man lost his head in the full meaning of the word. The story of Judith shows that the power of women's beauty is stronger than men's strength.
The princess first met Cranach when Johann Friedrich, a successor to the Saxon throne, came to woo her. Cranach accompanied him. He was already famous and all of Germany admired his paintings. Lucas was invited by Friedrich for the position of courtier artist with a high salary. Cranach took part in tournaments and holidays, accompanied his master during hunting. The artist had his own workshops with pupils, his own typography, he owned several houses and land. In addition he traded wine and sugar very successfully.
Sibylle was very impressed and excited with the first her portrait in the wedding dress Cranach painted.
Sybille in the wedding dress by Cranach
She was impatiently waiting for the wedding to move to Friedrich to see Cranach every day. The artist also invented fashionable costumes and decoration for cloth. Sybille enjoyed living with her husband. Her life was full of holidays, knights tournaments and other entertainment. Her husband was rather fat but kind and caring. He didn't disappoint Sybille but couldn't conquer her heart. It belonged to Cranach.
Cranach was very close to Friedrich.
Sybille became his favourite model. He was bewitched by her grace and charm and all his paintings of Venus, Judith, Lucretia had the same pretty face with prominent cheekbones, little chin, long eye shape. Of course, his adoration had limits. The husband of Sybille was not only his student but also a Saxon ruler. That is why in the painting "Judith" a careful Cranach changed his first idea and painted the head of Johann Friedrich instead of his as her husband lost his head from love to Sybille not the artist. But the artist was jealous and he made the work "The Fruits of Jealousy" where two men were pulling on a young naked woman. One of them is an old man with a beard like the artist had and another one is young.
But the secret rivalry became dangerous and the artist painted "Paradise" where three figures are depicted: Adam and Eve, the faces of which resemble Sybille and Friedrich and Sabaoth looking at them fatherly and had similar appearance with the artist . The romance between Sybille and Cranach expressed in paintings gradually faded away.
In 1546 Johann Friedrich fell into Emperor Karl V's disgrace and the Emperor's troop attacked the city. After the lost fight the wounded Friedrich was captured. Karl V sentenced him to die and Cranach hurried to help his master. Karl highly valued the artist. There were a lot of paintings of Cranach in his collection apart from his portrait when he was a child painted by Lucas many years ago.
Cranach brought his best painting "Judith" to Karl with that frightfully and fatefully depicted severed head of Friedrich.
Cranach appealed to Karl to save Friedrich's life and the Emperor couldn't refuse but the Saxon ruler should stay in prison. In three years Friedrich asked his closest friend Lucas to come and share captivity with him. Without thought Cranach passed all his property to his heirs and took to prison to his pupil. In 1551 Karl released Johann Friedrich for the sake of Cranach but sent him into exile. Cranach followed him. They stopped at Weimar where Sybille joined them. In 1553 Cranach died and the next year Sybille and Friedrich passed away at the same time.
Today "Judith" enriches the Vienna Museum of Art History, the painting at the cost of a human's life.
The writing of this post is inspired by the book "100 Masterpieces" by N. Sinelnikova.
Sounds like the artist was a good and loyal friend despite the relationship with Friedrich's wife.
Yes. It impressed me most of all. Thank you for reading!!!!!!!!
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