The Book of Judith is in the Catholic and Orthodox Christian canon of the Old Testament. And although Judith was Jewish, the Book of Judith was excluded from the Hebrew Bible, known as the Tanakh. Italian Renaissance and Baroque scholar Elena Ciletti and medieval scholar Henrike Lähnemann suggest that this exclusion is due to Judith’s sexuality in relation to the gaze of Holofernes.
Klimt’s inclusion of Judith partially nude, adorned with a large gold necklace and makeup, presents the heroine in a modern light: one where female sexuality is embraced and does not compromise piety.
Bloch-Bauer perfectly represents Judith in her home context in this way as she was wealthy, wise, and seeking a life of leadership. This type of woman was considered a “degenerate” by the Nazi Party in an attempt to demonize and brutalize women’s ambition. Degeneracy would later be used to categorize modern art as a whole into the Degenerate Art Exhibition (1937) once the idea evolved beyond gender roles and into ideas of racial purity.
Not only did Klimt’s Art Nouveau archetype challenge the one-dimensionality of interpretations of female sexuality by others, but his portfolio as an artist challenged notions of tradition and aesthetics. Klimt’s display of Jewish strength not only revitalized Judith as a modern icon, but transcended the sociopolitical tensions of pre-World War I Europe. In this way, its Art Nouveau archetype stands as a beacon of justice against fascism.