On the peculiar circumstances concerning the Father's head in Renaissance painting

judith stares out at the Other, compelling it to watch her and not her actions. holofernes looks up at god and hopes judith has given up: his neck is bleeding but her sword is withdrawn and she holds his hair loosely so as to avoid touching him altogether. somebody whispers to judith from the right and it is impossible to tell if she is listening. the curtain in the background takes up roughly half the canvas.

you can cut off the head of one father at the request of another, a fascist administrator of your jouissance.

or you can it off and be amazed at its heft and ugliness, be horrified and scared and still maintain a firm grip on your weapon. look at how her sword is ¾ of the way through his neck: despite the expression on her face, she keeps methodically sawing away.

somebody waits to catch the head. what will we do with it and the torso? how did we capture this father in the first place? he is not tied down - he must have desired to enter the chamber, lured by wealth or sex or some other illusion.

right now, the beginning of this struggle is more important than any imagined ending: why did we hunt him so? what has he stolen that we wish to steal back? do we want his head so that we can wear it ourselves? so that we can put it on a pike and mock its unseeing gaze?

did caravaggio paint this scene twice because he accepted that it is impossible to get it right when we cut off the head of the father? that we must find him in all his forms and keep our blades sharpened and plan ahead for how to dispose of the blood and the mess and never expect to be finished our task?

my answer to this question is yes. what do you think?
 
 
 
 
 
 

judith carefully watches her own actions because she is absorbed in executing them: the labor is more important than the display. holofernes looks up at her in disbelief but also enchantment, because it is her desire to behead him and there has never been anything more obvious than this in the world. somebody holds their breath on the left while judith completes her work. the curtain in the background is shadowed and in danger of falling over.