16 Photographs, RELIGIOUS ART - Photography from the Bible by William Mortensen, Frantisek Drtikol, Clive Barda ang Michal Baratz Koren, with footnotes, #3

Hedy Lamarr and Victor Mature

Samson and Delilah directed by Cecil B. DeMille, 1949

I have no further description, at this time

Samson and Delilah, see below

František Drtikol (3 March 1883, Příbram – 13 January 1961, Prague) was a Czech photographer of international renown. He is especially known for his characteristically epic photographs, often nudes and portraits.

William Mortensen

Joyzelle Joyner as Salomé

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William Mortensen (27 January 1897 – 12 August 1965) was an American art photographer, primarily known for his Hollywood portraits in the 1920s-1940s in the pictorialist style. He was born William Herbert Mortensen on January 27, 1897 in Park City, Utah, the son of Danish immigrants. During World War I, Mortensen served with the United States Infantry from August 6, 1918 to May 16, 1919. At his enlistment, he recorded his occupation as painting.

After his discharge from the army, Mortensen briefly studied illustration at the Art Students League in New York City. In May 1920 he traveled in Greece, Italy, Egypt and Constantinople to "sketch for educational purposes." He returned to Utah, then traveled to Hollywood.

Mortensen began his photographic career taking portraits of Hollywood actors and film stills. In 1931 he moved to the artist community of Laguna Beach, California, where he opened a studio and the William Mortensen School of Photography. More on William Mortensen

Salome was the daughter of Herod II and Herodias. She is infamous for demanding and receiving the head of John the Baptist, according to the New Testament. According to Flavius Josephus's Jewish Antiquities, Salome was first married to Philip the Tetrarch of Ituraea and Trakonitis. After Philip's death in 34 AD she married Aristobulus of Chalcis and became queen of Chalcis and Armenia Minor. They had three children. Three coins with portraits of Aristobulus and Salome have been found. Her name in Hebrew meaning "peace". More Salome

Frantisek Drtikol

Ervina Kupferova as Salome with the head of John the Baptist

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FRANTIŠEK DRTIKOL (1883–1961)

Salome with the head of John the Baptist, 1924

2 gelatin silver prints

4 5/8 x 3 1/2 in. (11.8 x 9 cm.)

Private collection

FRANTISEK DRTIKOL

SALOME, C. 1919

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Clive Barda

Salome

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Oscar Wilde originally wrote this play in French because English law forbade the depiction of biblical characters on stage, although this was probably more down to the nature of the tale than anything else.  The French were not so fussy.   Still to a modern, perhaps more jaded, audience Salome now seems a little staid.  So Herod wanted his stepdaughter to dance for him.  She was a grown woman and she’s fair game.  One might be puzzled as to why he would have given way to her incendiary demand for the head of Jokanaan (played convincingly by Dave Brickwood). More on this play

Clive Blackmore Barda OBE, FRSA (born 14 January 1945) is a London-based, British freelance photographer[1] best known for capturing the performances of classical musicians and artists of the stage (opera, ballet and theatre). During his career spanning over five decades, Barda has created a collection of over a million photographs of performers, composers, and conductors. More on Clive Barda

Anja Silja as Salome

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Anja Silja Regina Langwagen, born April 17, 1940 in Berlin) is a German soprano who is known for her great abilities as a singing-actress and for the vastness of her repertoire. More on Anja Silja

Soprano Nicola Beller-Carbone as Salome

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Born in Germany, Nicola Beller Carbone grew up in Spain where she initially studied to be an actress but later turned to singing, studying at the Escuela Superior di Canto of Madrid with Dolores Ripollès. In Munich she studied under Astrid Varnay and in 1991 obtained a permanent contract at the Opernstudio of the State Opera of Munich. More on Nicola Beller Carbone

Michal Baratz Koren

Adam & Eve, 2014

C-Print

Private collection

Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman and the ancestors of all humans. The story of Adam and Eve is central to the belief that YHWH created human beings to live in a paradise on earth, although they fell away from that state and formed the present world full of suffering and injustice. It provides the basis for the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. It also provides much of the scriptural basis for the doctrines of the fall of man and original Sin, important beliefs in Christianity, although not generally shared by Judaism or Islam. More on Adam and Eve

Michal Baratz Koren is a brilliant photographer. Her photos recall painters like Rembrandt, whose Biblical narratives and chiaroscuro lighting still stand as some of the best artwork of all time. Here the artist specifically focuses on depicting Biblical women, but ignores the most well known of our matriarchs, and sets them in the recent past in such a beautiful way that evokes the greater narratives at play. More on Michal Baratz Koren

Michal Baratz Koren

Bathsheba, 2014

C- Print

72 4/5 × 61 in, 185 × 155 cm

Private collection

According to the Hebrew Bible, "Bat Sheva," , "daughter of the oath"; was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of David, king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah. She is most known for the Bible story in which she was summoned by King David who had seen her bathing and lusted after her.

Bathsheba was from David's own tribe and the granddaughter of one of David's closest advisors. She was the mother of Solomon, who succeeded David as king, making her the Queen Mother. More on Bathsheba

Michal Baratz Koren

Queen of Sheba, 2014

C-Print

Private collection

The Queen of Sheba is a Biblical figure. The tale of her visit to King Solomon has undergone extensive Jewish, Arabian and Ethiopian elaborations, and has become the subject of one of the most widespread and fertile cycles of legends in the Orient.

The queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem "with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold, and precious stones"). "Never again came such an abundance of spices" as those which she gave to Solomon. She came "to prove him with hard questions", all of which Solomon answered to her satisfaction. They exchanged gifts, after which she returned to her land. More on The Queen of Sheba

Michal Baratz Koren

Hagar, 2014

C-Print

Private collection

Hagar is a biblical person in the Book of Genesis Chapter 16. She was an Egyptian handmaid of Sarah, who gave her to Abraham "to wife" to bear a child. The product of the union was Abraham's firstborn, Ishmael, the progenitor of the Ishmaelites.

The name Hagar originates from the Book of Genesis, and is only alluded to in the Qur'an. She is considered Abraham's second wife in the Islamic faith and acknowledged in all Abrahamic faiths. In mainstream Christianity, she is considered a concubine to Abraham. More on Hagar

Michal Baratz Koren

Daughters of Lot, 2014

C-Print

Private collection

Lot is a person mentioned in the biblical Book of Genesis chapters 11–14 and 19. Notable episodes in his life include his travels with his uncle Abram (Abraham), his flight from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, during which Lot's wife became a pillar of salt, and the seduction by his daughters so that they could bear children.


The story, usually called Lot and his daughters, has been the subject of many paintings over the centuries, and became one of the subjects in the Power of Women group of subjects, warning men against the dangers of succumbing to the temptations of women, while also providing an opportunity for an erotic depiction. The scene generally shows Lot and his daughters eating and drinking in their mountain refuge. Usually the background contains a small figure of Lot's wife, and in the distance the city or cities burn. More on Lot

Michal Baratz Koren

Jehudith, 2014

C-print

63 × 44 9/10 in | 160 × 114 cm

Private collection

The Book of Judith is the Old Testament of the Bible. The story revolves around Judith, a daring and beautiful widow, who is upset with her Jewish countrymen for not trusting God to deliver them from their foreign conquerors. She goes with her loyal maid to the camp of the enemy general, Holofernes, with whom she slowly ingratiates herself, promising him information on the Israelites. Gaining his trust, she is allowed access to his tent one night as he lies in a drunken stupor. She decapitates him, then takes his head back to her fearful countrymen. The Assyrians, having lost their leader, disperse, and Israel is saved. Though she is courted by many, Judith remains unmarried for the rest of her life. More on Judith

Michal Baratz Koren

Delilah, 2014

C-Print

55 1/10 × 43 3/10 in | 140 × 110 cm

Private collection

Delilah is a woman in the Book of Judges, where she is the "woman in the valley of Sorek" whom Samson loved, and who was his downfall. Her figure, one of several dangerous temptresses in the Hebrew Bible, has become emblematic: "Samson loved Delilah, she betrayed him, and, what is worse, she did it for money."

The story of Samson in Judges 13–16 portrays a man who was given great strength by God but who ultimately loses his strength when Delilah allows the Philistines to shave his hair during his slumber (Judges 16:19). Samson was born into an Israelite family, the son of Manoah and his wife who is never named. Both are visited by the Angel of the Lord and told that their child will be a Nazirite from birth. More on Samson

Michal Baratz Koren

Rahav

C-Print

I have no further description, at this time

Rahab was, according to the Book of Joshua, a prostitute who lived in Jericho in the Promised Land and assisted the Israelites in capturing the city. She became a figure of fascination to the writers of the New Testament, where she is reckoned among the ancestors of Jesus, and is lauded as an example of living by faith, while being justified by her works. More on Rahab

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