The Red Whipping
I am not sure just what sort of altercation these two ladies in red are about to solve by means of a brisk whipping, but it’s sad that we only get to see the beginning of it:
The art is from a classic Margaret Brundage cover for Weird Tales in December of 1934.
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Like the cover says, it’s from the Conan tale “A Witch Shall Be Born”; the woman on the floor is Queen Taramis, and the other is her twin sister Salome. In the scene it’s taken from, Taramis notes that “I know that you have spared me only to torment me; that is why you have limited your tortures to such torments as neither slay nor permanently disfigure.” So while whipping is not mentioned specifically, it’s not out of the question that it happened.
A lot of Robert E. Howard’s tales feature threats of spankings or whippings, or simple bottom-smacks in passing. Conan in particular tends to slap the backside of every woman he meets to show his pleasure or displeasure (though the fact that he uses it for both means he’s sending very mixed signals).