Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 105. (Budapest, 2006)
ANNUAL REPORT - A 2006. ÉV - VILMOS TÁTRAI: The Triumphant, the Defeated and The Victim: Caravaggio's David with the Head of Goliath
THE TRIUMPHANT. THE DEFEATED AND THE VICTIM: CARAVAGGIO'S DAVID WITH THE HEAD OF GOLIATH 12 October, 2006 - 30 November, 2006 Curator: Vilmos Tátrai VILMOS TÁTRAI. THE TRIUMPHANT, THE DEFEATED AND THE VICTIM: CARAVAGGIO: DAVID WITH THE HEAD OF GOLIATH, BUDAPEST 2006. HUNGARIAN AND ENGLISH! TEXT. 96 PP., 28 COL. ILLS.. ISBN 963 7063 32 3 The sixth and final event of the series of chamber exhibitions was centred around Caravaggio's David, which arrived for the occasion from the Galleria Borghese in Rome. Caravaggio's David with the artist's self-portrait on the head of Goliath and with its David moved by compassion, instead of being triumphant, is an enigmatic masterpiece. The exhibition attempted to exploit the ambiguous character of the work with the help of various other interpretations of the Biblical scene: the jaunty self-portrait in Giorgione's David, the humorous storytelling work of Campagnola, the proud child hero of the "Master of the Youths with Open Mouths", a French follower of Caravaggio (kindly lent by the Caylus Art Gallery in Madrid) and the sentimental drawing of Guercino, the Triumph of David. The David theme understandably attracted the Judith theme. The mannerist-naturalist interpretation of the scene was illustrated by the work attributed to Jacopo Coppi, from a private collection, while the neoclassical-rhetorical account was given by the compositional drawing of the Roman Giacinto Gimignani, The Triumph of Judith. The virtuously exectited and creative Judith by Johann Liss pointed toward the Renaissance-Baroque topos of "Weibermacht," and it invited the viewer to associate two separate female Biblical figures, Judith and Salome. The series of Salome paintings was opened by the blood curdling elegance of Cranach's Saxon ladyin-waiting, followed by the courtesan-representation of a sixteenth century Flemish painter relying on Venetian examples. Moving further ahead, we arrive at the conscious vulgarity of Artemisia Gentileschi, then at Francesco Rustici's notturno, which eliminates the distinctions between Salome and Judith, and eventually we see Dolci-follower Onorio Marinari's tw r o couplets, where the severed head in the hands of the equally beautiful and innocent ladies became a mere accessory. Artemisia Gentileschi's Jaelis suited to the topic of Biblical violence, depicting Jael hammering the peg into the head of Sisera as if it were an everyday event. Michèle Rocca's Samson and Delila transformed the story of bloodshed into a Rococo idyll. Tintoretto's work
