The Discovery of the Body of Holofernes

Artist: Luca Giordano, Italian, 1634–1705
Date: 1703–4
Material: Oil on canvas
made in: Naples, Italy, Europe
Classification: Paintings
Collection: European Art to 1800
Current Location: On View, Gallery 204
Dimensions: 30 1/4 x 40 1/2 in. (76.8 x 102.9 cm)
framed: 36 3/4 x 46 3/4 x 2 1/4 in. (93.3 x 118.7 x 5.7 cm)
Credit Line: Museum Purchase
Rights: Public Domain
Object Number: 61:1965

NOTES

The body of the murdered Assyrian general Holofernes forms the focal point in this oil sketch, part of Luca Giordano's last cycle of paintings. Holofernes led an army that besieged the city of Bethulia, home to the beautiful Jewish widow Judith. Having accepted the general's invitation to dine, Judith beheaded him when he fell into an inebriated sleep. The chaotic foreground of the painting conveys the distress of the Assyrian troops who discover their general's headless corpse.

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