The painting measures . It depicts Clytemnestra, mythical daughter of the Spartan queen Leda and sister of Helen of Troy, who herself became queen of ancient Mycenae. In an episode recounted in the tragic play "Agamemnon" by Aeschylus, the stern-faced queen is shown at the palace of Argos, shortly after she has killed her husband Agamemnon in revenge for his sacrifice of their youngest daughter Iphigenia to secure favourable winds for the journey home at the end of the siege of Troy. Agamemnon returned home with the captured Trojan princess Cassandra, but an enraged Clytemnestra murdered them both (in some accounts she is assisted by their son Orestes, and in others Agamemnon is killed by her lover Aegisthus).