puts hers in a sack, or carries it by the hair, both also following the text of their story. A single lock of hair falling over the face was considered highly alluring, and associated with courtesans, perhaps suggesting Salome is indeed the subject, though Judith is described as using every effort to dress seductively. The murky background at the left includes a fitting at the top, between the two women's heads, which is described as a lock by Panofsky, though it might be a hinge also. This marks the vertical edge of a zone with a slightly different tint, perhaps showing the transition from a door to a wall. What could be an iron bar, or door top, is to the left of the fitting. The Pasadena version also shows a fitting and change in colour. This suggests the paintings show the women leaving the prison where John was killed, to return with the head to the head to Herod's feast, a version of the story often shown in art, though not exactly following the gospel, in which a soldier presents the head on a dish to Herod, who gives it to Salome, who in turn gives it to her mother. The biblical text is very clear that Holofernes is assassinated in his tent in his camp, and the scene (rare in art) where Judith shows the head to the people of Bethulia happens at night inside the city gate, so the background of the painting is difficult to reconcile with a depiction of Judith. Attribution and date As with other small Titians from the 1510s, the attribution has wavered over the centuries, beginning with Titian in early records, but (almost inevitably) becoming attributed to Giorgione by the 19th century, until Crowe and Cavalcaselle attributed it to il Pordenone. By the end of that century it was once again attributed by most to Titian, which has remained the usual view among experts. The Norton Simon Museum version was attributed to Titian in sales in England between 1801 and 1859, but a sale in London in 1891 called it a Giorgione. Though a date of about 1515 has long been the usual view, purely on stylistic grounds, Charles Hope has suggested about 1511. This is partly because of its relationship to Sebastiano del Piombo's Salome of 1510 (National Gallery), where the setting also moves from dark at the left to light