Cranach, Lucas the Elder (1472-1553)
Judith with the head of Holofernes
c.1530
Oil on lime, 87.7 × 58.1 × 2.4 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Through courage and cunning, the Old Testament heroine had succeeded in penetrating Holofernes’ tent camp, which had been set up outside the city of Bethulia, and putting an end to the threat posed by the troops of the enemy general with his beheading. Almost all known versions of a half-length depiction of Judith from Cranach‘s “picture factory” were created around the year 1530 – a conspicuous concentration that is obviously related to the founding of the Schmalkaldic League: Judith was chosen as a symbolic figure of “Protestant will to defend himself” against the armies of Charles V. (KHM)