At the triennial salons, the city of Ghent prefers to buy works from artists who follow the academic tradition. Their work is not progressive, but often testifies to great technical mastery. The artists strive for a perfect reproduction of reality with an extremely fine finish. But they do not want to shock and tend towards an idealised image of that reality. Judith is a biblical figure from the Apocrypha. When her town Bethulia is besieged by Holofernes, Nebuchadnezzar's general, the townspeople are distraught. At that moment the courageous Judith steps into the enemy army. With her beauty, she manages to seduce Holophernes and behead him with his own sword.
