Lucas Cranach Judith With The Head Of Holofernes

Continuing into the Renaissance, Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Judith with the Head of Holofernes, was created in the midst of both the High and Late Renaissance. The oil painting on linden created in 1530, is in traditional portrait style, and showcased Judith immediately after the beheading. The image of Judith holding the decapitated head of Holofernes uses the contrasting nature of the scene in its advantage. The painting contains both the gruesome head and the elegant beauty of the murderous widow. Appropriately, Judith is dressed in an elaborate contemporary costume of the time. Like other High Renaissance works, the subject matter and style is developed in a way to appeal to the patrons. In this case, Cranach’s courtly patrons would have