monsters engaged in perverse acts, fantastic ships and an eerie background with ancient ruins, flames and clouds of smoke. Van Swanenburg's city views include a biblical scene of The siege of Bethulia (Museum De Lakenhal), which the artist completed in Naples in 1615. It depicts the apocryphal biblical story of the siege of the Jewish mountain town Bethulia by the Babylonians. The most important scene in the lower right corner is barely noticeable. There lies the lifeless body of the Babylonian general Holofernes. He was beheaded by the Jewish heroine Judith, who had cunningly entered his tent, plied him with drink, and then beheaded him. She took the head back to Bethulia as a trophy. Van Swanenburg also painted a topographical scene of St. Peter's Square in Rome with a papal procession (1628, National Gallery of Denmark). References External links 1571 births 1638 deaths Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch male painters Artists from Leiden