Most likely painted in 1602, Caravaggio’s “Judith and Holofernes” exemplifies the artist’s taste for realism and graphic violence in his art. The painting depicts the moment when the Hebrew widow Judith decapitates the Assyrian general Holofernes, as her maid Abra waits to collect his head in her apron. X-rays reveal that Caravaggio adjusted the head of Holofernes several times in order to show greater separation from his body. The face of Judith is modeled after a celebrated Roman courtesan named Fillide Melandroni who served as Caravaggio’s muse in many of his paintings.  Buona visione!