Judith with the head of Holofernes

The Master IW is an anonymous German or Bohemian painter identified by the monogram IW, active in the early sixteenth century. This Judith with the Head of Holofernes, dated around 1525 and now in the National Gallery Prague, treats the Old Testament heroine who saved the Jewish city of Bethulia by seducing and beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes. Judith was among the most compelling heroines of the sixteenth-century imagination — a virtuous widow, patriot, and assassin whose violent act of liberation made her an icon of female heroism. The subject attracted painters across Europe and generated some of the most confrontational images of female power in the entire tradition.

The composition focuses on Judith holding or displaying the severed head of Holofernes, with a maidservant receiving it into a bag. The Master IW's style tends to precise, angular figure rendering, with the contrast between Judith's composed beauty and the grisly trophy as its central tension.