Judith at the Banquet of Holofernes

A richly adorned young woman accepts a cup from a maidservant, her expression composed and regal as she prepares for the fateful banquet that will seal the Assyrian general's doom. Draped in sumptuous fabrics and gleaming jewels, she embodies both beauty and deadly resolve, the quintessential heroine of the biblical Book of Judith.

For centuries this painting's true subject eluded scholars. Earlier catalogues identified the woman as Sophonisba drinking poison, or as Artemisia II of Caria receiving her husband's ashes. Modern art historians have reidentified the scene as Judith attending the banquet of Holofernes, the pivotal moment before her legendary act of courage and deception.

Rembrandt likely used his wife Saskia van Uylenburgh as the model, lending the figure an intimate tenderness that complicates the narrative's violence. The painting dates to 1634, a productive year in which Rembrandt married Saskia and was at the height of his early fame in Amsterdam. The work now hangs in the Museo del Prado in Madrid.