INV. 028 · Artwork
Judith Shows the Head of Holofernes (Gustave Doré)
This is a modern artwork. It shows how a later age imagined the past, not how the past was.
The book uses an illustration of Judith from Doré's Bible (figure 3.4); this is another plate from the same series, obtained independently from Commons. The parallels between Judith and Judah Maccabee suggest that the story was inspired by the revolt.
- Type
- Artwork
- Nature
- Modern artworkA later artistic interpretation; not a document of the period.
- Date of the object
- 1866Bible illustrated by Doré (1866), according to Commons.
- Depicts
- The book of Judith, whose plot has parallels with the Maccabean revolt.
- Image
- Gustave Doré
- Licence
- Domínio público
- Retrieved
- Commons API, 2026-10-14
Sourced historical context
Women also played a part in the revolt. 2 Maccabees tells the story of a nameless mother who exhorts her seven sons to perish resisting Antiochus before dying herself (later tradition would call her Miriam or Hannah). The book of Judith, set in biblical times, may reflect the events of the revolt. The story of Judith, a widow who defends Israel while the men look on helplessly, has parallels with Judah Maccabee: similar names and the decapitation of a hostile general (Holofernes in one case, Nicanor in the other). In later Jewish tradition, Judith is sometimes cast as kin to the Maccabees and her story is read at Hanukkah.