Five mini-exhibitions

Curated Tours

Follow an argument rather than a century. Every path is short enough for one visit and open enough to become another.

01

The essential route

Ten Judiths You Should Know

From a letter on vellum to Klimt's gold ground: ten stops, ten claims about the same woman.

10 stops

A gilded medieval initial contains Judith leaning over a sleeping Holofernes and swinging a sword toward his neck.

c. 1275–1300 · The act

Judith Beheading Holofernes, Historiated Initial A

Unknown illuminator, southern France

Donatello's bronze Judith stands above Holofernes, gripping his hair while preparing to strike with a sword.

c. 1457–1464 · The sword raised

Judith and Holofernes

Judith walks briskly through an open landscape carrying a sword while her maid follows with Holofernes's head.

c. 1470–1475 · Return to Bethulia

The Return of Judith to Bethulia

Sandro Botticelli

A richly dressed Judith calmly holds a sword and the severed head of Holofernes against a dark background.

c. 1530 · Display of the head

Judith with the Head of Holofernes

Lucas Cranach the Elder

Judith draws a sword through Holofernes's neck as blood jets onto white bedding and an elderly maid watches.

c. 1599–1600 (dating debated; 1602 also proposed) · The act

Judith Beheading Holofernes

Judith and her maid pin Holofernes to a bed while Judith saws through his neck with a sword.

c. 1612–1613 · The act

Judith Slaying Holofernes

Artemisia Gentileschi

Judith and her maid force Holofernes down while Judith cuts his neck and blood arcs across the bed.

c. 1620 · The act

Judith Slaying Holofernes

Artemisia Gentileschi

A richly dressed woman identified as Judith sits at a banquet as an attendant offers a cup in a dark interior.

1634 · The banquet

Judith at the Banquet of Holofernes

Rembrandt van Rijn

Goya's dark mural shows Judith emerging from blackness with a knife while her maid crouches below; Holofernes is outside the frame.

1820–1823 · The sword raised

Judith and Holofernes

Francisco de Goya

Klimt's Judith, bare-chested and half-lidded, stands against a gold patterned field with Holofernes's head cropped at the lower edge.

1901 · Display of the head

Judith I

02

The blade in motion

The Fatal Moment

Artists who refuse aftermath and make us remain in the tent while intention becomes bodily fact.

5 stops

A gilded medieval initial contains Judith leaning over a sleeping Holofernes and swinging a sword toward his neck.

c. 1275–1300 · The act

Judith Beheading Holofernes, Historiated Initial A

Unknown illuminator, southern France

Judith draws a sword through Holofernes's neck as blood jets onto white bedding and an elderly maid watches.

c. 1599–1600 (dating debated; 1602 also proposed) · The act

Judith Beheading Holofernes

Judith and her maid pin Holofernes to a bed while Judith saws through his neck with a sword.

c. 1612–1613 · The act

Judith Slaying Holofernes

Artemisia Gentileschi

Judith and her maid force Holofernes down while Judith cuts his neck and blood arcs across the bed.

c. 1620 · The act

Judith Slaying Holofernes

Artemisia Gentileschi

A small engraving shows Judith leaning over Holofernes inside an extensively detailed tent interior.

1645 · The act

Judith and Holofernes

03

Narrative time

Before / After

Prayer, banquet, blow, concealment, return, display: what changes a few verses forward or back?

6 stops

A richly dressed woman identified as Judith sits at a banquet as an attendant offers a cup in a dark interior.

1634 · The banquet

Judith at the Banquet of Holofernes

Rembrandt van Rijn

A Victorian Judith pauses in prayer beside the sleeping Holofernes before taking up the sword.

1863 · Before the blow

Judith and Holofernes

John Rogers Herbert

Judith draws a sword through Holofernes's neck as blood jets onto white bedding and an elderly maid watches.

c. 1599–1600 (dating debated; 1602 also proposed) · The act

Judith Beheading Holofernes

Judith stands at the opening of a tent while a maid receives Holofernes's head into a sack.

c. 1495–1500 · The head in the bag

Judith with the Head of Holofernes

Andrea Mantegna or follower (possibly Giulio Campagnola)

Judith walks briskly through an open landscape carrying a sword while her maid follows with Holofernes's head.

c. 1470–1475 · Return to Bethulia

The Return of Judith to Bethulia

Sandro Botticelli

A richly dressed Judith calmly holds a sword and the severed head of Holofernes against a dark background.

c. 1530 · Display of the head

Judith with the Head of Holofernes

Lucas Cranach the Elder

04

One heroine—or two actors?

Judith and Her Maid

Follow Judith's unnamed maid from marginal carrier to indispensable collaborator, lookout, and partner in escape.

6 stops

Judith walks briskly through an open landscape carrying a sword while her maid follows with Holofernes's head.

c. 1470–1475 · Return to Bethulia

The Return of Judith to Bethulia

Sandro Botticelli

Judith stands at the opening of a tent while a maid receives Holofernes's head into a sack.

c. 1495–1500 · The head in the bag

Judith with the Head of Holofernes

Andrea Mantegna or follower (possibly Giulio Campagnola)

Judith draws a sword through Holofernes's neck as blood jets onto white bedding and an elderly maid watches.

c. 1599–1600 (dating debated; 1602 also proposed) · The act

Judith Beheading Holofernes

Judith and her maid pin Holofernes to a bed while Judith saws through his neck with a sword.

c. 1612–1613 · The act

Judith Slaying Holofernes

Artemisia Gentileschi

Judith and her maid force Holofernes down while Judith cuts his neck and blood arcs across the bed.

c. 1620 · The act

Judith Slaying Holofernes

Artemisia Gentileschi

Torchlight catches Judith and her maid as they secure Holofernes's head in a basket during their escape.

1610s · Escape from the camp

Judith with the Head of Holofernes

Antiveduto Gramatica

05

No straight line

Heroine, Threat, Heroine Again?

Civic virtue, Baroque force, devotional counterexample, erotic icon, political parody, and Black female power interrupt any simple decline from heroine to femme fatale.

9 stops

Donatello's bronze Judith stands above Holofernes, gripping his hair while preparing to strike with a sword.

c. 1457–1464 · The sword raised

Judith and Holofernes

A richly dressed Judith calmly holds a sword and the severed head of Holofernes against a dark background.

c. 1530 · Display of the head

Judith with the Head of Holofernes

Lucas Cranach the Elder

Fede Galizia’s elaborately dressed Judith rests one hand on Holofernes’s severed head while a maid stands behind.

1601 · Display of the head

Judith with the Head of Holofernes

Judith and her maid force Holofernes down while Judith cuts his neck and blood arcs across the bed.

c. 1620 · The act

Judith Slaying Holofernes

Artemisia Gentileschi

Michaelina Wautier’s Judith and her maid work together to lower Holofernes’s head into a cloth in a dark interior.

c. 1650 · The head in the bag

Judith with the Head of Holofernes and Her Maid

Michaelina Wautier

A Victorian Judith pauses in prayer beside the sleeping Holofernes before taking up the sword.

1863 · Before the blow

Judith and Holofernes

John Rogers Herbert

Klimt's Judith, bare-chested and half-lidded, stands against a gold patterned field with Holofernes's head cropped at the lower edge.

1901 · Display of the head

Judith I

Text-only record for Komar and Melamid's Judith on Red Square.

1993 · Afterlife of the story

Judith on Red Square

Komar and Melamid

Text-only record for Kehinde Wiley's 2012 Judith and Holofernes.

2012 · Display of the head

Judith and Holofernes