Judith Beheading Holofernes

Judith recoils even as she saws through the general’s neck, her expression caught between resolve and disgust while her elderly maid waits with the cloth. Caravaggio refuses to make the act heroic or clean — the blood arcs, the body convulses, and everyone in the picture registers the physical difficulty of it. He reportedly used a known Roman courtesan as the model for Judith.