Judith II

Klimt painted this in 1909, and within a year it had travelled to the Venice Biennale and been bought on the spot by the city's modern gallery, where it still hangs. It was his second take on Judith, the widow who saved her town by beheading the enemy general Holofernes. His first Judith faced the viewer, gold and serene. This one turns away in sharp profile, her fingers clawed, her face hard and absent, as though her spirit were still stuck in the moment of the killing. The tall, narrow format crowds her, and the head of Holofernes is shoved down into the lower corner. Viewers argued over the subject so much that many simply called the painting Salome instead.