Jael Smote Sisera, and Slew Him 1902

James Tissot made "Jael Smote Sisera, and Slew Him" with watercolor, and the watery quality totally works here. The process of watercolor is all about letting the pigments do their thing, like destiny playing out on paper. Look at Jael’s blue dress, how the color pools and blooms, creating these organic, unpredictable shapes. It's as if the fabric itself is alive, mirroring the intense action of the moment. The contrast between the soft, almost ethereal washes of color and the brutal act she’s committing is jarring. There's this tension between beauty and violence, like a dance where the steps are both graceful and deadly. It’s interesting to compare Tissot with someone like Artemisia Gentileschi, who also painted biblical scenes with a feminist slant, but with a much different, baroque sense of drama and chiaroscuro. Art is always a conversation.