Isabella and the Pot of Basil 1876 Holman Hunt

 

This image is in the Public Domain.

William Holman Hunt was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848, along with John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Isabella and the Pot of Basil is from Keats Poem "Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil A Story from Boccaccio" (which you can read here). Set in the middle ages, the story tells of how Isabella's brothers murder her lover, Lorenzo. The brothers had decided he was not well born enough for Isabella to marry. Isabella discovers where the brothers have buried the body, cuts his head off and re buries it in a pot of basil which she spends her days pinging over.