Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
Valentin de Boulogne French
Not on view
The Old Testament heroine Judith is shown after her victory over the Assyrian general Holofernes, whom she seduced before cutting off his head. In keeping with seventeenth-century discussions about the place of women in society, she is shown as a heroic woman—a femme forte. Her hand raised, she admonishes: "But the Almighty Lord hath disappointed them by the hand of a woman." This celebrated picture was owned by the German banker Everhard Jabach, who sold it to Louis XIV; it decorated a room at Versailles.
#319. Judith with the Head of Holofernes
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