Ellen Tracy as Lady Macbeth by John Singer Sargent, and fanart by Anna Bernal (she also has a blog here)

This painting always reminds me of the Queen of the Damned:

… I saw them in the thickening gloom-the two of them, their red hair catching the hazy glow of the fire; the one holding the bloody brain in her mud-covered fingers, and the other, the dripping heart. … Mekare lifted the brain to her mouth; Maharet put the heart in her other hand; Mekare took them both into herself.

And the twins turned around and stood up now, Maharet’s arm around Mekare. And Mekare stared forward, expressionless, uncomprehending, the living statue; and Maharet said:

“Behold. The The Queen Of The Damned.”

There is an enormous difference between Mekare and Lady MacBeth, obviously. But still. Look at the passion in Lady MacBeth’s eyes… She already knows that the means of obtaining this crown were absolutely poisonously wrong, the crippling guilt is setting in, but she’s still consumed with the desire for it all the same. 

Whereas, Maharet, together with Mekare, must destroy & replace the mad Akasha, the original Queen of the Damned. Looking at this painting, it seems more that the woman (I guess this would be Mekare) is horror-stricken at having to take on such a burden, but she’s willing to make the sacrifice it requires for the good of the coven, and, the world.

Also I love the fanart by Anna Bernal, so I threw that in for comparison. She reads more as Jesse Reeves to me.