Gallery label
Cranach's Judith is dressed to kill: courtly surface and bodily horror coexist without disturbing her composure.
Look closely
Slashed sleeves, chains, velvet hat, and jeweled choker command more attention than the wound. Her fingers settle into Holofernes's hair with portrait-like calm.
Why this Judith matters
Cranach's workshop repeated this profitable opposition of serene beauty and abjection; repetition itself became part of Judith's meaning.
Sources for this record:The Metropolitan Museum of Art record ↗Koepplin and Falk catalogue, digitized by Heidelberg ↗
“Cranach's Judith is dressed to kill: courtly surface and bodily horror coexist without disturbing her composure.”
Narrative index
Primary catalogue placement: display of the head, Judith 13:14–16. The index organizes comparison; it does not claim that every visual detail comes from those verses or that the work touches only one episode.
