The story of Judith from Bethulia to Florence

Abstract

This essay is inspired by one of Roberto Alonge’s former works and it deals about the successful path of Judith’s myth, from the essential biblical episode to its triumphant presence on the baroque scene, both theatrical, melodramatic and pictorial: that Passion that leads the widow of Betulia to identify with Christ, without depriving her of the most human meanings and passions (felt or caused). The nether theme aims directly at one of the basic issue in the culture of the Humanism and the Renaissance but, more specifically, of the Baroque and its counter-reformist meanings: the issue regarding the compatibility between the ancient biblical and pagan inventions with the statements of the Christianity (and the allowance of its eventual fantasies). Florence between the Republic and the Princedom represents the privileged gaze to evaluate the incredible versatility of this myth in the arts.