Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553)
»Judith with the Head of Holofernes«

c. 1530, Tempera and oil on linden wood

According to the apocryphal Book of Judith, the Old Testament heroine liberated the Jewish city of Bethulia from Assyrian occupation by beheading the Assyrian military commander Holofernes with his own sword after a feast and thus forcing the leaderless troops to flee.

Cranach does not portray Judith in the act of killing Holofernes but presents her - as a half-length figure - after the deed has been done. The expansive, abstractive pictorial structure, the deeply luminous colouration, the finely executed painting technique and the stylistic conventions oriented towards the courtly ideal of beauty identify this painting as a characteristic example of the artist’s Wittenberg period. [ EW ]