Judith, Salome, and Allegories of Tyranny in the Work of Lucas Cranach the Elder

Abstract

AMONG THE MOST ENIGMATIC compositions in Lucas Cranach’s oeuvre are his biblical decapitations of the 1530s. In 1531, he executed a pair of panels depicting the story of Judith and Holofernes; between 1531 and 1539, he and his workshop produced four paintings of the Feast of Herod of nearly identical composition and size. Through the decade, Cranach and his shop painted half- to full-length images of the princess Salome alone that are almost indistinguishable from his contemporaneous paintings of Judith. I propose that Cranach’s narrative paintings should be understood as allegories: they were veiled references to the tyranny of the imperial court and were intended for the Lutheran prince-electors in the years following the Diet of Augsburg. These half-length images of Judith and Salome proliferated because both subjects connoted the downfall of tyrannical forces. Cranach thus skillfully adapted rarefied political iconography to imagery that served a broad Reformation audience.