Judit met het hoofd van Holofernes c. 1537 - 1555

Cornelis Bos created this engraving titled, 'Judith with the Head of Holofernes', around the mid-16th century. Bos, living in a time of religious upheaval and reformation, reinterprets a story from the Book of Judith. Here, Judith, a Jewish widow, is depicted with her maidservant after she has assassinated the Assyrian general Holofernes, thereby saving her city from destruction. Notice the composition, where the women are not recoiling from the violence. Instead, they appear calm, almost statuesque. Bos is placing Judith as the virtuous heroine and Holofernes as the defeated villain. The power dynamic at play speaks to the vulnerability of Judith's position as a woman in a patriarchal society. It is through her bravery and cunning that she reclaims agency, turning her vulnerability into a source of power. In its time, this image would have served as a potent symbol of resistance. Now it stands as a testament to the enduring power of individuals to challenge oppression and alter the course of history.