1. BOOK OF JUDITH
 Remember the story?
 "Nebuchadnezzar" dispatched Holofernes to take
vengeance on the nations of the west that had
withheld their assistance to his reign. The general
laid siege to Bethulia, and the city almost
surrendered. It was saved by Judith, a beautiful
Hebrew widow who entered Holofernes' camp and
seduced him. Judith then beheaded Holofernes
while he was drunk. She returned to Bethulia with
the disembodied head, and the Hebrews defeated
the enemy.

2. BOOK OF JUDITH
 Judith is didactic
fiction, complete with
many historical
inaccuracies, probably
composed less than a
century before Christ's
birth by an unknown
author.

3. Judith and Holofernes (Judith 13,1-10)
"Judith was left alone in the tent, with Holofernes stretched
out on the bed, for he was overcome with wine (Judith 13,2)...
She went up to the post at the end of the bed, above
Holofernes' head, and took down his sword that hung there.
She came close to the bed and took hold of the hair of his
head, and said: "Give me strength this day, O Lord God of
Israel!". And she struck his neck twice with all her might, and
severed his head from his body (Judith 13,6-8)... After a
moment she went out and gave Holofernes' head to her maid
(Judith 13, 9)".
The Old Testament narrates the episode of Judith who saved
her city of Bethulia from the siege of Holofernes, general of
the Assyrian king Nabucodonosor, by killing him after a
banquet at which he had been made drink, beheading him and
bringing his head to his fellow citizens (Judith ch. 10-13).

5. Gentileschi, Judith Slaying
Holofernes
• Painted six versions of the
story
• Gentileschi raped when young:
is there a relationship of this
event to the painting?
• Artist identified with Judith,
Gentileschi’s self-portrait as
the heroine
• Not idealized but realistic
figures
• Gory moment of decapitation,
blood squirting out: shock
value
• Holofernes defenseless
• Tenebroso
• Dramatic light effect from the
left