Portrait of a Woman as Judith

The tale of Judith and Holofernes is found in the Apocrypha of the Old Testament. The heroine, Judith, saved her city of Bethulia from attack by the Assyrian army. Judith plotted to deceive Holofernes, the Assyrian commander, into believing she wanted to help him capture her city. With the assistance of her maidservant, she entered the camp and slew him in his drunken sleep. The moment captured in Portrait of a Woman as Judith is when Judith has returned to Bethulia triumphant with the head of the Holofernes and his sword. Next to her hand, the artist has written, “Ecce Caput Holofernis,” which is Latin for “Behold the Head of Holofernes,” the words Judith spoke as she pulled the head from the sack and held it for all to see. Judith’s maidservant is looking back at the dark and gloomy Assyrian camp, where we see Holofernes’s decapitated body being discovered by the troops.