Images of Sex and Desire in Renaissance Art and Modern Historiography by Pollali Angeliki; Hub Berthold;

Author:Pollali, Angeliki; Hub, Berthold;
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Routledge

Returning to Donatello’s statue, Judith’s desire of the phallus, as in the masculine-phallic Judith, would have resulted in an actual decapitation. In Donatello’s group, however, decapitation has yet to occur. In this regard, Lacan’s notion of castration, the phallus as a signifier of lack, finds a parallel in Donatello’s representation. It is exemplified in the second strike of the sword which, although imminent, it is never actual. Lacan’s spaltung is thus denoted in the absence of the actual castration. Donatello’s statue points toward the unattainability of every object of desire, the Lacanian structural nonfulfillment of human needs. Holofernes misses the intercourse because he is castrated, or he is castrated in order for him not to attain the object of his desire. The missed acts, as ‘witnessed’ by the viewer, find a parallel in the Lacanian absence of satisfaction of desire.

In terms of its iconographic details, the statue does not generically stand for the biblical story. As clearly denoted by the double strike (and the uniqueness of this representation), the statue relates to the second moment of decapitation. The statue’s departure from the narrative—the position of Judith on top of Holofernes, which is inextricably related to her stepping upon Holofernes’ groin and the impossibility of the second strike (decapitation)—constitutes a rupture with the text. Significantly, this rupture points to the Lacanian ‘splitting.’ If the statue were to ‘stand’ for the story, it would ‘stand’ for human desire. The biblical text concerns the attaining or not of (sexual) satisfaction: Holofernes misses the intercourse but he attains the castration. Judith does cut off his head; she puts it in a bag and she takes it back to her people. Lacanian theory reminds us that even when satisfaction is obtained, there is always a leftover, which can never be fulfilled. It is this profound human anxiety that is exposed in Donatello’s statue. The statue does not “allay the anxieties attending indeterminacy,” as Mary Jacobus proposes, neither does it merely expose indeterminacy; it rather confronts the viewer with unattainability. This might point to the reason why the gash on Holofernes’ neck has been ‘hidden’ from scholarship, or the reason why scholars have even relegated it to a casting flaw. To draw a parallel with Lacan’s exposition on need/desire, the gash would figure as a ‘residue of obliteration’—the particularity of satisfaction which is annulled by demand and it is destined to reappear beyond demand as desire. It is this reversal, inherent in desire but absent in the text, which is ultimately exposed in Donatello’s sculptural group of Judith and Holofernes.

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