Judith with the Head of Holofernes and her Maid

Judith with the Head of Holofernes and Her Maid is Wautier's treatment of the biblical heroine who saved her people by beheading the Assyrian general. The subject was popular among women artists of the period, including Artemisia Gentileschi, as it depicted female courage and agency. Wautier was among the most technically accomplished Flemish women painters of the seventeenth century, working in Brussels producing large-scale religious and mythological canvases exhibited at the court of Archd...

The dramatic subject is rendered with powerful figure painting, the contrast between Judith's composed strength and the gruesome trophy conveying the narrative with characteristic Baroque intensity.