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# The Marquise de Montespan as Judith, Thriftily Holding the Severed Head of Holofernes
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/markiza-de-montespan-v-obraze-iudifi-rachitelno-priderzhivaiushchei-otsechennuiu-golovu-oloferna-2/
- Published: 2025-12-05T05:34:28.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:27:48.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Art, Monarchies, Mores, People, Humour

Once more, then: the Marquise de Montespan, mistress of Louis XIV and mother of seven of his children, in the guise of the Old Testament heroine Judith, the young widow who saved besieged Judea by cutting off the head of Nebuchadnezzar's seduced general Holofernes while he slept. A pretty hint.

Gabriel Revel's masterpiece was painted in 1688, when the 48-year-old Madame de Montespan had been pensioned off from her post as royal favourite for five years already, and, given the unsavoury affair in which she had become entangled at the close of her career, such a comparison was not dangerous for the artist

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_18941@05-12-2025_08-34-28.jpg)