Gustav Klimt · 1909 · a disputed identity
Judith II or Salome: history, analysis and difference with Judith I
A woman in motion, fingers changed into claws, a body almost swallowed up by ornament and a severed head relegated to the bottom: Klimt paints Judith well, but constructs an image ambiguous enough to make Salomé emerge.
Direct response
The historical title is Judith; "Salomé" designates the ambiguity of the image
The 1909 painting was shown at theInternational Kunstschau Wien under the title Judith. He retained this designation at the 1910 Venice Biennale, where the municipal gallery purchased it. In other words, there is no evidence to suggest that Klimt officially baptized him Salome. The Gustav Klimt Database emphasizes precisely this point.
Why then do we see everywhere Judith II (Salome) ? Because the figure resembles less the biblical widow who saves her city than a fin-de-siecle dancer: open bust, floating eyes, agitated posture and tense fingers. In Klimt's time, Oscar Wilde's Salomé had become the emblem of the femme fatale. The two heroines met visually around a dangerous beauty and a severed male head.
The most precise formulation is therefore: Judith II is the historical title, while Salome is an interpretation that has become traditional. The double title does not indicate an error to be corrected, but the way in which Klimt deliberately blurs the iconography.
Before looking at the table
Judith and Salomé do not tell the same story
Both are associated with a beheading, but their role, their motive and the head presented do not coincide. Confusing them erases the difference between a liberator and a princess exploited by a story of desire and revenge.
Guided reading
Five details that rock the image
Klimt tells neither the banquet, nor the tent, nor the murder. It compresses the action into a body crossed by tensions. The narration survives in fragments: a head, hands, a twist and a few shards of gold.
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An absent rather than triumphant face
The eyes seem veiled and the head goes back. Judith I was almost staring at the viewer; Judith II seems carried away by an inner sensation. This floating allows the reading "Salomé".
An uncovered chest without stable pose
The neckline does not build calm nudity. It accompanies the twisting of the bust, as if the garment were sliding during a movement. Eroticism is nervous, not monumental.
Fingers transformed into claws
The hands hold neither sword nor tray. Their elongated phalanges, bent with almost painful precision, condense the violence that the story no longer shows.
A garment that has become a vertical current
Triangles, bands, arabesques and colored spots lead the gaze downward. Ornament does not decorate the body: it prolongs and disarticulates it.
Holofernes relegated to the margins
The severed head is low, dark and partially absorbed by the patterns. This detail confirms Judith, but its erasure prevents immediate identification and frees Salomé's interpretation.
Two versions, eight years apart
Judith I and Judith II: same heroine, two power regimes
Klimt does not repeat a formula. Between 1901 and 1909, the frontal and golden body became a stretched, mobile and more struck silhouette. The comparison shows the gradual exit from the regular enchantment of the Secession.
Judith I: The Front Icon
Judith appears at mid-body, almost motionless. Her face, shoulders and wide necklace make up a stable architecture. Gold transforms the scene into a precious object, while Holofernes' head barely appears in the lower right corner. The metal frame executed by Georg Klimt extends the painting like a piece of goldsmithing.
Judith II: the silhouette in crisis
The figure is taken in a very high and narrow format. It bends, twists and seems to slide along the canvas. Gold remains, but it shares the surface with red, black, mauve and more dissonant patterns. The power is no longer that of a sovereign icon: it becomes impulse, convulsion and movement.
| Element | Judith I, 1901 | Judith II, 1909 | Product effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Posture | Frontal, stable, close to the portrait bust | Oblique, stretched, crossed by twists | From displayed mastery to bodily tension |
| Look | Eyes half closed but directed towards us | Floating gaze, almost absent | From conscious seduction to ambiguous ecstasy |
| Ornament | Regular golden background, precious object | Fragmented patterns and vertical currents | From icon to disarticulation |
| Holofernes | Discreet but readable head at the bottom right | Head even more absorbed by the dark margin | The story fades behind the figure |
| Identity | Judith, already sometimes confused with Salomé | Judith historical, Salomé visually plausible | Ambivalence becomes the very subject |
End of century
Why does Salomé win despite the title?
Around 1900, Salomé was no longer a simple biblical character. Oscar Wilde's play, created in French in 1896, makes him a figure of desire, dance and death. Richard Strauss extends this vogue with his opera Saloma, created in Dresden in 1905. The artists therefore have an immediately recognizable type: the dangerous dancer, fascinated by a severed head.
Klimt brings Judith closer to this guy without officially changing her name. The woman of 1909 has neither the sword of the warrior widow nor the restraint of a civic heroine. Her exposed chest, her troubled eyes, the cadence of her clothing and her clenched hands make her look like a dancer after the climax of the movement.
A heroine painted for centuries
What Klimt takes away from Judith's tradition
In the baroque versions, tension arises from the gesture, the blood, the servant or the trophy. Klimt retains the erotic charge and the severed head, but removes almost all the action markers. This radical reduction explains the modern strength of the painting.
Artemisia Gentileschi
Judith and Abra act together. The arms form a visible mechanism, Holofernes' blood and resistance give the murder its physical weight. In Klimt, this violence passes entirely through the fingers and lines.
Judith and Abra
The servant, the basket and the worried listener recount the escape from the tent. The National Museum of Norway highlights the solidarity and mastery of the two women. On the contrary, Klimt isolates his face in a world without a place.
Fede Galizia
The head, the top, the dress and the jewelry coexist in a readable presentation. Beauty does not erase the identity of the story. At Klimt, the head is compressed to the limit of the visible and the pageantry becomes almost abstract.
Color and material
A palette that is no longer just "golden"
Judith II belongs to the end of the golden period, but she already announces a more expressive language. Gold doesn't cover everything: it rubs against black, dark red, orange, purplish pink and cold grays.
In Klimt's work
1909: Gold cracks, line becomes sharper
Three paintings help locate Judith II. Pallas Athena prepares the armed heroine, Judith I inaugurates the erotic icon and Hope II shows how ornament can absorb a body while retaining an existential charge.
Pallas Athena, 1898
Armor, frontal gaze and metal frame: Klimt already transforms an ancient heroine into a modern, cold and sovereign presence.
Judith I, detail, 1901
The necklace closes the neck like a piece of goldsmithing. The face remains entirely available to the eye, unlike the inner drift of Judith II.
Hope II, 1907 -1908
The pregnant body blends into clothing and gold, while a skull recalls death. Like Judith II, the work combines decorative beauty and threat.
See both tables
Judith II is in Venice, Judith I in Vienna
Judith II belongs to Ca' Pesaro - Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna. The MUVE notice places it in room 3, but a hanging may change: consult the museum page before your visit. Its height and narrowness are essential to the experience; on a screen, it is easy to underestimate the way in which the silhouette dominates the viewer.
Judith I located at the Belvedere in Vienna. Seeing it with its frame designed by Gustav and made of metal by Georg Klimt allows us to understand that the work is also a complete object. Gold is not a simple printed color: it captures light and modifies the frontality of the face.
Continue around Klimt
Additional articles
Verified sources
Museums, scientific base and work notices
Fondazione MUVE
Official notice of Judith II: date, technique, dimensions, inventory, location and acquisition in 1910.
See the instructions →Gustav Klimt Database
History of the titles Judith /Salomé, presentation of 1909, Biennale of 1910 and context of the golden period.
Read the folder →Belvedere Museum
Role of Judith I in the use of gold leaf and place of the work in Viennese modernity.
Read Analysis →Nasjonalmuseet
Detailed account of Judith, Holofernes and Abra from a composition attributed to the Gentileschi.
See the work →Metropolitan Museum
Iconography of Salomé receiving then presenting the head of John the Baptist in an illuminated manuscript.
See the story →Art Institute of Chicago
The traditional stages of the Judith cycle: seduction, decapitation, flight and exposure of the head.
Read Article →The reproduced works are in the public domain or come from files already associated with the Alpha Reproduction editorial library. The hanging photographs remain credited to their institutions. The graphic markers added to the image of Judith II are only used for reading.
Frequently asked questions
Judith II in eight answers
Does Judith II represent Judith or Salome?
The historical title used in the 1909 and 1910 exhibitions is Judith. "Salomé" is an interpretation that has become common due to the dancer's posture, eroticism and ambiguity of the severed head.
What severed head do we see in Judith II?
In the historical identification of the painting, it is the head of Holofernes, the Assyrian general beheaded by Judith. It appears very low and remains partially absorbed by the dark decor.
What is the difference between Judith and Salomé?
Judith decapitates Holofernes in order to save her besieged city. Salome dances in front of Herod then receives, at Herodias' request, the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
When did Klimt paint Judith II?
He painted it in 1909. It was presented the same year at the Internationale Kunstschau in Vienna, then at the Venice Biennale in 1910.
Where is Judith II today?
It belongs to Ca' Pesaro - Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna in Venice. The city acquired it during the 1910 Biennale.
Why is Judith II so narrow?
The vertical format accentuates the stretching of the body and transforms the patterns of the garment into a downward current. This constraint produces a sensation of sliding and tension absent from Judith I.
Is Judith I also sometimes called Salome?
Yes, it also caused this confusion, because Klimt accentuates eroticism and greatly reduces the biblical story. However, his title and the head of Holofernes identify him with Judith.
Did Adele Bloch-Bauer pose for Judith?
An identification with Adele Bloch-Bauer is often proposed for Judith I and sometimes for Judith II, on the basis of similarities. It must remain formulated as a hypothesis and not as a certain fact.
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