Germany: Gustav Klimt - Judith I, 1901

Klimt depicts Judith as a femme fatale. She looks down on the viewer, her mouth voluptuously open and with her right hand she strokes the hair of Holofernes. The mountains, the fig trees and the vine stock refer to an Assyrian relief on the Palace of Sennacherib as a biblical place. Judith, also often mentioned as Salome, is a chase widow who defeats the haughty military leader of the Assyrians by plain ruse without seducing Holofernes and in a weak moment decapitates him. Klimt’s brother Ernst made the frame. The painting was first shown at the 8th International Art exhibition in Munich 1901.

Measures: 84 x 42 cm
Technique: Oil on canvas
Depository: Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna

Stamp is Ballonblume (Balloon Flower) Year of issue: 2011.

Thank You Jessica!