Judith with the Head of Holofernes
The taste for copper supports among collectors moved from Italy to northern Europe—notably Antwerp, where this work was likely painted—by the mid-seventeenth century. Teniers was a prolific painter closely involved at the Flemish court. This painting was acquired by an American collector during the French Revolution and donated to The Met shortly after the museum was founded. The biblical subject represents the Jewish heroine Judith, who saved the city of Bethulia by first beguiling and then beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes. Judith appears accompanied by her maid and displaying Holofernes’s severed head as a trophy.
Artwork Details
- Title: Judith with the Head of Holofernes
- Artist: David Teniers the Younger (Flemish, Antwerp 1610–1690 Brussels)
- Date: 1650s
- Medium: Oil on copper
- Dimensions: 14 1/2 x 10 3/8 in. (36.8 x 26.4 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Gift of Gouverneur Kemble, 1872
- Object Number: 72.2
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings
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