In the Bible, Judith saves her city by beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes. Klimt painted her in 1901 with half-closed eyes and parted lips, wrapped in gold, holding the head almost casually at the bottom right edge, where it is half cut off.

Klimt’s brother Georg made the gold frame, with her name engraved on it. Many early viewers assumed it showed Salome instead, the more “fatal” biblical woman.