Judith with the Head of Holofernes

Through much of the 19th century this Judith went under the wrong name. The Borghese inventory of 1833 gave it to Lavinia Fontana, the Bolognese painter, and catalogues repeated that until 1893. That year, after a restoration nobody recorded, the historian Adolfo Venturi found a signature and date on the rim of the golden basin, FEDE GALIZIA. F. 1601. Galizia was a Milanese painter in her early twenties, and the museum singles out her skill with fabrics and ornament. It shows in the pearls threaded through Judith's hair, the silver-lilac brocade and the jewelled hilt of the sword. Behind her an old maid holds the head of Holofernes in the basin and raises a finger to her mouth. The picture belonged to Cardinal Antonio Maria Salviati in Rome by 1612 and reached the Borghese by 1693. Today it is in storage.