''Judith with the head of Holofernes'' is a 1610–1615 painting by the painter

Carlo Saraceni Carlo Saraceni (1579 – 16 June 1620) was an Italian early-Baroque painter, whose reputation as a "first-class painter of the second rank" was improved with the publication of a modern monograph in 1968. Life Though he was born and died in ...

, now held in the

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal do ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. The painting is typical of Saraceni's first decade in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

where he became influenced by

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

. His use of candlelight is illustrative of the

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

used by the tenebrists in this period. Another autograph copy is known in the

Dayton Art Institute The Dayton Art Institute (DAI) is a museum of fine arts in Dayton, Ohio, United States. The Dayton Art Institute has been rated one of the top 10 best art museums in the United States for children. The museum also ranks in the top 3% of all art mus ...

. This painting was documented in

David Teniers the Younger David Teniers the Younger or David Teniers II (bapt. 15 December 1610 – 25 April 1690) was a Flemish Baroque painter, printmaker, draughtsman, miniaturist painter, staffage painter, copyist and art curator. He was an extremely versatile arti ...

's catalog ''

Theatrum Pictorium ''Theatrum Pictorium'', or ''Theatre of Painting'', is a short-hand name of a book published in the 1660s by David Teniers the Younger for his employer, the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria. It was a catalog of 243 Italian paintings in the Ar ...

'' of the art collection of

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (5 January 1614 – 20 November 1662), younger brother of Emperor Ferdinand III, was an Austrian soldier, administrator and patron of the arts. He held a number of military commands, with limited success, and ...

in 1659 and again in 1673,39
in

, 1673 but the portrait had already enjoyed notoriety in Teniers' portrayals of the Archduke's art collection: File:Jan van Troyen - Judith with the Head of Holofernes SVK-SNG.G 11965-40.jpg, 1673 engraving from Teniers' catalog, by

Jan van Troyen Jan van Troyen (1610 – 1670) was a Flemish engraver and etcher. He is mainly known for the work he did for David Teniers the Younger on the illustrations for the ''Theatrum Pictorium'', an publication which gave an overview of the paintings in ...

File:David Teniers (II) - The gallery of Archduke Leopold in Brussels.jpg File:David Teniers (II) - The Gallery of Archduke Leopold in Brussels - WGA22066.jpg, ''

Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels (Schleissheim) ''Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels'' is a painting of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's Italian art collection by the Flemish Baroque painter David Teniers the Younger, now held in the Schleissheim Palace. It dates to the 1650s. The ...

'', 1640 File:David Teniers (II) - Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria in his Gallery - WGA22064.jpg, ''

Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm (Brussels) ''Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels'' is a 1651 painting of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's Italian art collection by the Flemish Baroque painter David Teniers the Younger, now in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. The painti ...

'', 1651 File:Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels - Petworth House.jpg, ''

Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels (Petworth) ''Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels'' is a 1651 painting of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's Italian art collection by the Flemish Baroque painter David Teniers the Younger, now held in Petworth House in England. The painting shows th ...

'', 1651 File:David teniers-lazaro galdiano.JPG, ''

Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels (Galdiano) ''Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and the artist in the archducal picture gallery in Brussels'' is a 1653 painting of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's Italian art collection by the Flemish Baroque painter David Teniers the Younger, now held in the collection ...

'', 1651 File:David Teniers the Younger - Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Art Gallery in Brussels.jpg, c.1651 File:David Teniers II - Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and the artist in the archducal picture gallery in Brussels (1653).jpg, ''

Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels (Rothschild) ''Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and the artist in the archducal picture gallery in Brussels'' is a 1653 painting of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm's Italian art collection by the Flemish Baroque painter David Teniers the Younger. It is now held in a priv ...

'', 1653

References

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on museum website
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in the catalog Theatrum Pictorium 1610s paintings Paintings in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Paintings in the collection of the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria Paintings depicting Judith {{16C-painting-stub