Art Institute of Chicago

Judith with the Head of Holofernes

Girolamo Mocetto (Italian, c.1470-after 1531)

Date

n.d.

Medium

Engraving in black on ivory laid paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This engraving illustrates a scene from the Apocryphal book of Judith. Judith, angered that her country was under foreign rule, decided to kill the enemy leader, Holofernes. She visited him and drank wine with him until he fell asleep; then, taking his sword, she “struck his neck twice with all her might, and severed his head from his body.” Girolamo Mocetto depicted Judith immediately after this act, handing Holofernes’s severed head to her maid.

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