The stories behind the paintings

A young woman in a gown of shimmering gold turns towards us with perfect calm. In her right hand she holds a sword; in her left, gripped by the hair, she holds the severed head of a bearded man. Behind her, an old woman in a white veil waits with a sack. It is one of the most famous paintings in Florence, and one of the most personal. According to the Florentine biographer Filippo Baldinucci, the head belongs to the painter himself, Cristofano Allori; the beautiful executioner is the woman he loved, and the maid is her mother. Cristofano Allori, Judith with the Head of Holofernes , 1610–12. Oil on canvas, 139 × 116 cm. Source: Gallerie degli Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, Florence, inv. 1912 no. 96. Public Domain artwork. Fine-art print available from the Sapiens Verbum print shop. 🖼️ Get this painting as a print → Quick facts Artist: Cristofano Allori (1577–1621), Florentine painter Title: Judith with the Head of Holofern...

She does not look at you. She looks at the snake. A pale nude figure stands against a dark green thicket, her long golden hair falling over her shoulders, while a huge serpent coils around her body from ankle to throat and rests its head on her shoulder. John Collier's Lilith (1889) turns the first woman of Jewish legend, Adam's rebellious first wife, into one of the most memorable images of late Victorian painting. It hangs today in the Atkinson Art Gallery in Southport, on the north-west coast of England. John Collier, Lilith, 1889. Oil on canvas. The Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport. Image via the Sapiens Verbum print shop. 🖼️ Get this painting as a print → Quick facts Artist: John Collier (1850–1934) Date: 1889 Medium: Oil on canvas Size: 194 × 104 cm Collection: The Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport (transferred from Bootle Art Gallery in the 1970s) Notable fact: Collier's Lilith embraces the serpent of Eden, merging two figures that legend had long link...