Judith with the Head of Holofernes

By the time Cristofano Allori painted this in Florence, in the 1610s, he had a real woman in mind. According to Filippo Baldinucci, a biographer who knew people close to him, the Judith here is Maria di Giovanni Mazzafirri, the mistress everyone called La Mazzafirra. She spent his money, kept him jealous, and by most accounts made his life miserable. The old servant holding the sack is said to be her mother, and the severed head of Holofernes, eyes half open, is Allori's own face. So the biblical scene of a woman who charms a man and then takes his head doubles as a private confession. Judith stands calm and richly dressed, the gold brocade of her gown catching the light, the sword lowered in one hand while the head hangs from the other.