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# The Marquise de Montespan as Judith, Thriftily Holding On to the Severed Head of Holofernes
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/markiza-de-montespan-v-obraze-iudifi-rachitelno-priderzhivaiushchei-otsechennuiu-golovu-oloferna/
- Published: 2024-04-18T06:32:16.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:34:00.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Art, Monarchies, Mores, Paris, People, Humour

Once more, for the record: 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 general Holofernes, whom she had seduced, while he slept. A pretty hint.

Gabriel Revel's masterpiece was painted in 1688, when the 48-year-old Madame de Montespan had already been retired from her post as royal favourite for five years, and, given the unsavoury affair in which she had become entangled at the close of her career, such a comparison held no danger for the painter.

The painting will shortly go under the hammer in Paris with an estimate of 40,000 to 60,000 euros.

![](https://theparnassian.com/content/images/2026/09/photo_11963@18-04-2024_09-32-16.jpg)