This study analyzed the painting "Judith Slaying Holofernes" by the Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio through the lens of Erwin Panofsky's method of "Iconographic and Iconological Art Criticism." The main theme of the artwork was the display of courage by Judith, a Jewish woman, against the Assyrians following the invasion of the Jews by the Assyrians. In the work, Judith was depicted as seducing the Assyrian general Holofernes and beheading him after getting him drunk to save her people from the Assyrians. The artwork was created by Caravaggio during the Italian Baroque period in 1598-1599. It has dimensions of 145x195 cm and is currently on display at the National Gallery of Ancient Art - Barberini Palace in Rome. In the study, the descriptive scanning model, one of the qualitative techniques, was used, the data was collected using written and visual material scanning techniques, and a comparative analysis was carried out with Panofsky's "Iconographic and Iconological Art Criticism" method. According to this method, the work was analyzed in three sections: the natural meaning (factual, expressive meaning), in which pure forms and objects are identified; the negotiated/consensual meaning (secondary meaning), in which artistic motifs and compositions are combined with themes and concepts; and finally the intrinsic meaning (content), in which there is a direct transition from secondary meaning and motifs to content. In the natural meaning section of the work, the space-figure-object depictions were analyzed, in the consensual meaning section, the story that is the subject of the work and the portrayal of the story were interpreted, and finally, a comparative analysis was carried out with the works of Artemisia Gentileschi, Peter Paul Rubens, Valentine de Boulogne and Adam Elsheimer, who treated similar themes during the same periods with the intrinsic meaning of the work. Judith's story of beheading Holofernes offers an important perspective from a sociological perspective to evaluate the perception of women in a society. While many stories tell about the heroism of men for their nation, depicting the story of a woman who showed heroism for her nation offered new opportunities to artists who wanted to get rid of the rigid and rigid tradition of the period.