Judith met hoofd van Holofernes in raamopening 1547

This tiny engraving, "Judith with the Head of Holofernes in a Window Opening," was made in 1542 by the German artist Sebald Beham. The story of Judith, a Jewish widow who seduces and then beheads the Assyrian general Holofernes, was a popular subject in the 16th century. Beham’s engraving presents Judith as a powerful, sensual figure, sitting with Holofernes’ head in her lap. The imagery suggests a complex interplay of gender, power, and violence. During the Reformation, artists like Beham were grappling with new ways of representing religious narratives. He perhaps used the figure of Judith to explore themes of female agency and resistance against tyranny. Consider the intimate scale of the engraving. It invites a close, almost voyeuristic, examination, drawing the viewer into the fraught moment of Judith's triumph and trauma. The image lingers with the idea of how personal acts of violence can resonate with larger political and religious conflicts.