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Judith I
Gustav Klimt · Symbolism & Art Nouveau
- Artist
- Gustav Klimt (1862–1918)
- Date
- 1901
- Dimensions
- 84 x 42 cm
- Medium
- Oil and gold leaf on canvas
- Location
- Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria
Judith I depicts the biblical heroine who saved her people by beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes. Klimt shows her not as a pious widow but as a sensual, self-confident woman, holding the severed head almost casually at the lower right edge.
A closer look
Judith’s head is tilted back, her eyes half-closed and her lips parted in an expression of pleasure and triumph. Her body is partly bare, wrapped in a transparent, gold-patterned fabric, and she wears a wide jewelled gold collar. The background of stylised golden trees and hills, inspired by Assyrian reliefs, flattens the space. The heavy use of gold leaf, a technique Klimt learned from his goldsmith father, would become the hallmark of his “golden period”, culminating in The Kiss.
More by Gustav Klimt
In this gallery
Famous works elsewhere
- Danaë 1907
- The Three Ages of Woman 1905
- Adele Bloch-Bauer II 1912
- Portrait of Fräulein Lieser 1917
- Insel im Attersee 1901