Gallery label
A medieval Speculum places Judith's victory beside the Virgin overcoming the Devil: typology is built into the page, not supplied as a later gloss.
Look closely
The museum catalogue records two paired tinted drawings on the same folio: the Virgin overcomes the Devil, and Judith kills Holofernes. Their shared scale and adjacency make comparison the organizing form.
Why this Judith matters
This object supplies direct material evidence for the Marian reading of Judith. Medieval typology did not merely call both women virtuous; it made Judith's defeat of a tyrant prefigure Mary's defeat of evil.
Sources for this record:Fitzwilliam Museum catalogue record ↗
“A medieval Speculum places Judith's victory beside the Virgin overcoming the Devil: typology is built into the page, not supplied as a later gloss.”
Narrative index
Primary catalogue placement: the act, Judith 13:6–8. The index organizes comparison; it does not claim that every visual detail comes from those verses or that the work touches only one episode.
