THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Once again, the painter brought a scene from the biblical past into the world of his own time, but never before had he done so with such brutal, shocking immediacy. Sanctified execution in an Assyrian tent had become murder in a Roman whorehouse. The bearded Holofernes, lying naked on the crumpled sheets of a prostitute’s bed, is a client who has made a terrible mistake. He wakes up to realize that he is about to die. Fillide pulls on his hair with her left hand, not only to expose his neck but to pull the flesh taut so that it will part more easily under the blade. In her right hand, she holds the oriental scimitar – Caravaggio’s one concession to historical accuracy – with which she has just managed to sever her victim’s jugular. She frowns with grim concentration, as he screams his last, and as the blood begins to spray from the mortal wound in bright red jets. A theatrical swag of dark red drapery hovers directly above the act of murder.

Graham-Dixon/Caravaggio