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Judith and Holofernes

around 1530, Artist: Lucas Cranach d. Ä.

 

 

Judith and Holofernes

With cunning and courage, the Old Testament heroine succeeded in entering the camp of Holofernes outside the city of Bethulia. There she put an end to the threat his troops posed by decapitating the enemy general. Cranach’s large workshop created all of the known half-length versions of Judith around the year 1530. This striking concentration was apparently related to the founding of the Schmalkaldic League at that time: Judith became the symbolic figure of Protestant resistance to the armies of Charles V.

Location: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Saal XI

Object data

Object Name

Painting

Culture

German

Dated

around 1530

Artist

Lucas Cranach d. Ä. (1472 Kronach - 1553 Weimar) - GND

Material

Limewood

Dimensions

Overall: 87,7 cm × 58,1 cm × 2,4 cm
Framed: 103 cm × 73 cm × 5,5 cm

Signed

Inscribed on the left side of the head of Holofernes with the snake with standing wings

Image rights

Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie

Inv. No.

Gemäldegalerie, 858

Provenance

ca. 1610-1619 imperial collection Vienna;

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