Judith with the Head of Holofernes
| Attributed To | Matteo di Giovanni (Italian, 1430–1495) |
|---|---|
| Title | Judith with the Head of Holofernes |
| Date | Ca. 1490 |
| Medium | Oil on panel |
| Dimensions | Framed: 27 3/8 × 23 5/8 × 3 5/8 in. (69.5 × 60 × 9.2 cm) Overall (cradle): 1 3/4 in. (4.4 cm) Support (cradle): 22 1/8 x 18 1/2 in. (56.2 x 47 cm) |
| Credit Line | The Samuel H. Kress Study Collection, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University |
| Accession Number | 62.163 |
| This artwork is currently on view. | |
A woman in a red dress stands at the center of the painting, holding a sword above her head with her right hand and holding the decapitated head of a man in her left hand. The landscape behind her features an encampment with several tents and a man on a horse.
This sword-wielding woman has traditionally been identified as Judith, an ancient Israelite who beheaded the Assyrian general Holofernes. However, because the panel was cut down at some point, her identity is not certain. More recently, scholars have suggested she is Tomyris, who decapitated the Persian king Cyrus the Great after her central Asian people, the Massagetai, defeated his army. Likely commissioned by the Piccolomini family of Siena, this portrait originally formed part of a series of eight full-length portraits of heroes and heroines from antiquity. The subject of Tomyris better aligns with the Greco-Roman theme of the larger series.
Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
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"Judith with the Head of Holofernes | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=62.163