Judith with the Head of Holofernes
Artist
Lucas Cranach the Elder
(German, 1472 - 1553)
Dateca. 1527-1537
Object number60.0143
Mediumoil on panel
Dimensions34 1/4 × 32 1/2 in. (87 × 82.6 cm)
frame: 44 1/4 × 32 3/8 × 3 7/8 in. (112.4 × 82.2 × 9.8 cm)
frame: 44 1/4 × 32 3/8 × 3 7/8 in. (112.4 × 82.2 × 9.8 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineMuseo de Arte de Ponce. The Luis A. Ferré Foundation, Inc.
Collections
On View
Not on viewDescriptionAccording to the Bible, Judith crept into the camp of her community’s enemy, Holofernes, in order to seduce and kill him when he was most vulnerable. Dressed luxuriously and suggestively, Judith stands here dressed in red velvet and wearing the jewels of a sixteenth-century courtesan. She holds the head of her defeated enemy with gloves sliced open to show her rings, and blood still on the blade of her sword. Though Holofernes stares out at the viewer warning us not to be tricked by a woman’s deception, Judith throws an inscrutable glance our way as the brave savior of her people.
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