Anyone know the story behind this?
You’re in for a horrific tale, my friend:
“Judith Slaying Holofernes is a painting by the Italian early Baroque artist Artemisia Gentileschi, completed in 1612-13 and now at the Museo Capodimonte, Naples, Italy.[1] The picture is considered one of her iconic works. The canvas shows Judith beheading Holofernes. The subject takes an episode from the apocryphal Book of Judith in the Old Testament, which recounts the assassination of the Assyrian general Holofernes by the Israelite heroine Judith. The painting shows the moment when Judith, helped by her maidservant Abra, beheads the general after he has fallen asleep in a drunken stupor. She painted a second version now in the Uffizi, Florence, somewhere between 1613 and 1621.”
- from Wikipedia
Also, she painted the face of her rapist onto the man in the painting, an early example of justified, feminist rage.
TL;Dr: Assyrian General invaded jewish cities, hot chick seduces him and makes him drunk. Then she beheaded him and thus saved her people.
That slightly viscous arterial spray is incredibly accurate. Don’t ask how I know.
