Judith and Holofernes

By 1608 Paul V had been pope for three years, and his nephew, Cardinal Scipione Borghese, was building a picture collection at speed. A family document dated 2 May 1608, now in the Vatican archives, records the price of "the painting with the story of Judith", and the museum thinks it was ordered by Scipione or by the pope's brother, Giovanni Battista Borghese. Baglione chose the minute after the killing. Holofernes' headless body sprawls in shadow on the left, legs thrown up beneath a heavy curtain. The heroine stands in full light, jewels in her golden curls, lowering his head into a bag held by her maid. The maid is old and deeply lined, turned in profile with a look of horror. Scholars think Baglione had seen a very similar old woman in Caravaggio's Judith, painted for the banker Ottavio Costa.