The image of Judith in 15-17th centuries European art

Diploma Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Art - History of Art, grade: exellent, Saint-Petersburg State University, language: Russian, abstract: The research studies the Judith image in the early modern European art and culture. The author studies the iconography of the image understanding it as a marker of cultural context and European consciousness. Starting from 15th century we can speak about Judith as a heroine with her own feelings and personality, while in the Middle Ages the image was seen in the symbolic Christian light. The specific attention is paid to the processes of the transaction from ecclesiastical understanding to temporal one during the Renaissance. The author looks for reason why her deed has left the heroic meaning, and the image has become fatal. One of the carefully studied problems is the correspondence between images of Salome and Judith, which was noticed by E. Panofsky. The development of iconography in context of patristic tradition is compared consecutively from the very beginning to the 17th century images. The content of the diploma thesis is the following: Introduction §1 Aims and metodology of the research3 §2 Review of the sourses and literature7 §3 The author's publications on the theme11 Chapter I. The images of Judith and Salome in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance § 1 Cultural features of the periods13 §2 The image of Judith in Middle Ages as triumth of virtue 16 §3 The image of Salome in Middle Ages as unknown dancer21 §4 The image of Judith in the 14-15th centuries.: traditional iconograthy, but new meanings24 §5 The image of Judith in Italian art of the late 15th28 §6 The image of Salome in 14-15th centuries Italian art.: the emergence of the heroine31 §7 Conslusions34 Chapter II. The unity of contraditions: the 16th century images of Judith and Salome § 1 Cultural trends in European 16th century countries36 §2 The image of Judith during the Wars of Religion37 §3 Judith and Salome in the context of querelle des femmes40 §4 Judith and Salome in 16th century Italian art46 §4 Conslusions51 ????? III. The image of Judith in barocco art of 17th century §1 Modern periond and its laws53 § 2 Judith and Salome seen by Caravaggio and his followers54 §3 Conslusions59 Conslusion62 The list of the sourses and literature65