Judith with the Head of Holofernes

The Hebrew heroine Judith presents the severed head of the Assyrian general who besieged her city, having seduced and then beheaded him with his own sword. Appropriately, she is "dressed to kill" and wears an elaborate contemporary costume that would have appealed to Cranach’s courtly patrons. The painter and his workshop produced several versions of this successful composition, which contrasts the gruesome head and the serene beauty of the biblical heroine. At the lower right is Cranach's insignia: a crowned winged serpent with a ring in its mouth. (Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)