MONSTRANCE
Judith Beheading Holofernes — Caravaggio
Sanctuary Edition

Judith Beheading Holofernes

Caravaggio (Italian, 1571–1610)
Date c. 1598–99
Collection Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Palazzo Barberini, Rome
Subject Old Testament
Season Ordinary Time
Master 7,595 px
License PD/CC0
Attribution Gallerie Nazionali d'Arte Antica - Palazzo Barberini, Rome

The original, as its museum records it

Artist MICHELANGELO MERISI DETTO IL CARAVAGGIO
Date (1597-1600)
Medium olio su tela
Dimensions cm. 145x195
Holding Gallerie Nazionali d'Arte Antica - Palazzo Barberini, Rome
Accession not recorded

Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.

The file this print is made from

Source Caravaggio - Giuditta e Oloferne (ca. 1599).jpg
Master 7,595 px on the long edge
Rights PD/CC0 — the photograph as well as the painting

Sizes

18×24 in$140
sheet 24×18 in · image 24×17.9 in · archival margin · 316 dpi
24×36 in$190
sheet 36×24 in · image 32.2×24 in · archival margin · 236 dpi
32×48 in$340
sheet 48×32 in · image 42.9×32 in · archival margin · 177 dpi
40×60 in$480
sheet 60×40 in · image 53.6×40 in · archival margin · 142 dpi
View in the gallery

About this painting

Judith takes the sword to Holofernes at the stroke itself, not after. What the maid holds open is a food bag. She had refused his table, 'lest sin come upon me,' eating what she carried; the sack that kept her clean of him now holds his head. The Kimbell reads the light down her arms as divine.

Its first owner, the banker Ottavio Costa, hung a silk curtain over it and forbade by will its sale or removal from the family. It surfaced only in the 1950s, discovered in an Italian family's collection. The curtain worked.

Sources: Kimbell Art Museum, 'Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes', loan from Palazzo Barberini, 2025-26 · Kimbell Art Museum, 'Guest of Honor: Kimbell Presents Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes' · Nova Vulgata, Liber Iudith 13:9-10 (Holy See) · Douay-Rheims (Challoner), Judith 12:2 · Minneapolis Institute of Art, 'Last chance to see Caravaggio at Mia, though the story will remain' · Minneapolis Institute of Art, exhibition page, 'Caravaggio's Judith and Holofernes' · Douay-Rheims (Challoner), Judith 12:19

And she struck twice upon his neck, and cut off his head, and took off his canopy from the pillars, and rolled away his headless body.

Judith 13:10 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner), from the project’s own corpus at data/bible_drc.js

Pray with this every day  ›

Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 7,595 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.