Apparently, Artemisia Gentileschi couldn’t get enough of Judith and Her Maidservant.

The narrative behind Judith and Her Maidservant is a subject that Artemisia Gentileschi painted throughout her career. In contrast to Gentileschi’s best known and gory work Judith Slaying Holofernes – showing Judith cutting off Holofernes’ head after seducing him – the subject of Judith and Her Maidservant provides a tamer side of the story, instead depicting moment before Judith and her maid flee the scene with the decapitated head of Holofernes.

Artemisia Gentileschi also depicted the biblical story of Judith and Her Maidservant in several versions. Three of these versions survived and this work from the National Museum of Capodimonte is one of them. Even though the painting looks stunning, art historian Jesse M. Locker wrote in his book Artemisia Gentileschi: The Language of Painting that the work is “admittedly inferior” compared to the version at the Detroit Institute of Arts. When creating this painting, Gentileschi reused elements that can also be found in the other versions, like the kneeling pose of the maidservant wrapping the head with a piece of fabric, and the flickering candle on the table.

Gentileschi probably painted this Judith and Her Maidservant for the Duke of Parma in the 1640s. Some have argued though, that the painting is a copy of lost work. It was made during a late period in the artist’s life, since she died in the 1650s, but little is known about her last years. We do know, however, that she came back to Naples from her stay in London by 1640, where she would spend the rest of her life.

We also now know that this “unloved” painting was part of the collection of Giovanni Andrea Lumaga – the head of a wealthy Venetian merchant family – which did not include, as previously assumed, its more popular sibling residing in Detroit. So, if you’re ever at the National Museum of Capodimonte, give this underappreciated painting some love.