...one writer contends that successful narrative paintings should be capable of being read by a reasonably well-educated viewer with the title of the work, any supporting quotation (verse, etc.), and the painting itself. He suggests that you try this with the some works by Laurens, such as this one. Galswintha (540-568 CE), or Galeswintha, was the daughter of the Visigoth king of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), and sister of Brunhilda, Queen of Austrasia (Belgium across to Germany). She married King Chilperic I, the Merovingian ruler of Neustria (northern France), in 567. However, marriage did not suit Chilperic’s mistress, Fredegund, who arranged for Galswintha to be strangled so that she could marry the king. Galswintha’s murder caused her sister Brunhilda to make war against Chilperic, which lasted for some 40 years. In turn, Chilperic was murdered in 584, possibly by Fredegund. Galswintha was honored in a long commemorative poem written by the late Latin poet Venantius Fortunatus, which may have been Laurens’ inspiration. Laurens shows Galswintha lying, presumably dead, in a heavy-built four-poster bed, its curtains partly drawn back. A young well-dressed woman (presumably Fredegund) views her from the foot of the bed. Fredegund is partly undressed, her right shoulder and much of her back bare, as if she too is just getting ready for bed. Just outside the room, on the other side of a drawn curtain, is a man, who looks in through a gap in that curtain. He is presumably King Chilperic waiting for his mistress to join him, now that he is a widower and free to marry her. Although a subtle painting which requires detective work to discover its story, this is perhaps one of Laurens’ best narratives. [https://eclecticlight.co/2016/07/18/the-story-in-paintings-jean-paul-laurens-and-the-end-of-history/]