Neither Eve nor Mary | Judith and Holofernes, by Marcelle Hanselaar

Marcelle Hanselaar, Vindication, Judith and Holofernes (2022), Etching & aquatint, Image size: 20x25cm, Paper size: 38x43cm. Edition of 30.

This rather gruesome etching is part of a series of works by the London-based Dutch artist Marcelle Hanselaar, titled Apocrypha.

The term refers to Biblical stories deemed to be of dubious canonical merit and thus removed from Protestant editions of the Old Testament, though retained in Hebrew, Catholic and Orthodox versions. 

Hanselaar’s etching is titled Vindication: Judith and Holofernes, and it depicts a scene from one such tale, the Book of Judith. Holofernes was an Assyrian general who was preparing to destroy the city of Bethulia. Before he could, Judith, a widowed native of that city, entered his tent and – after he’d had a bellyful of wine – beheaded him.

The scene has been painted by many artists. In the early Renaissance period, Judith was depicted as a desexualised, fully clothed figure. Later she fell from grace, and was increasingly shown as a scantily clad seductress: more Eve than Mary. She has been painted by artists as diverse as Michelangelo, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Rubens, Artemisia Gentileschi, Gustav Klimt, Franz Stuck and Tina Blondell.

Hanselaar’s Judith is neither Eve nor Mary. She doesn’t seem to be happy about the deed she has done: the way she is holding the knife suggests she wants to drop it, in disgust. Her free hand appears to be caressing the general’s forehead, in an act of post-coital tenderness, perhaps. She looks upwards, drawing the viewer’s eye beyond the canvas – offscreen, if you like - to follow her gaze. Who is she looking at? Has she been caught in the act? There are further incongruities muddying the waters: why is she wearing a modern-era suit jacket, falling off her shoulder to reveal a bare breast? Why does the shadow of the knife resemble a horse’s, or giraffe’s head?

This is typical Hanselaar, raising more questions than answers. And are there any answers? Her work, heavily influenced by the subconscious, has often been compared to that of Paula Rego, and rightly so, but there are also hints of Goya about both her mark-making and her dark subject matter. Breughel and Bacon are in there, too, somewhere, sometimes. She often cites Max Beckmann, the German Expressionist, as a major influence.

Other titles included in Hanselaar’s Apocrypha series, all completed in 2022, include Beauty and the Beast, Salome, and The Taboo, The Witch of Endor. The artist is represented by the art dealer Julian Page, and you can see the whole series on his website. He will be showing Hanselaar’s work at British Art Fair 2023, alongside pieces by Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Alexander Massouras, Kate McCrickard, Bridget Riley and James Rogers.