Klimt turns the biblical widow who beheaded the Assyrian general Holofernes into a Viennese femme fatale. Judith, half-dressed in sheer fabric, looks down at us through lowered lids with parted lips, while Holofernes' head is pushed to the lower right and cut off by the edge. Gold leaf fills the background with stylised trees and locks her into a flat, shimmering surface.
Look closer
There is no sword and no blood. Many viewers have seen in Judith's face the Viennese socialite Adele Bloch-Bauer, whom Klimt later painted twice.
Looks like this
Compared by a vision model
