Herodias with the Head of John the Baptist
Artist
Palma Vecchio (Jacopo Negretti)
(Italian, 1479/80 - 1528)
Dateca. 1515-20
MediumOil on wood
DimensionsFrame: 46 7/16 H × 41 15/16 W × 3 1/2 D in. (118 × 106.5 × 8.9 cm)
Unframed support: 36 3/4 H x 32 3/8 W in. (93.3 x 82.2 cm)
Unframed support: 36 3/4 H x 32 3/8 W in. (93.3 x 82.2 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineBequest of John Ringling, 1936
Object numberSN66
The New Testament relates that Salome danced so well for King Herod that he agreed to grant her any request. Her mother, Herodias, who sought revenge on John the Baptist, persuaded Salome to ask for his head. Here Herodias has received the Baptist's head from the executioner (barely visible at left), while her daughter Salome, at right, perhaps implores her mother to repent. The subject, which was popular in north Italian art of the period, provided artists the opportunity to depict idealized female beauty.
On View
On viewLocation
Bibliography- Museum of Art, Gallery 06, Wall South
Waagen. Art Treasures in Great Britain, Vol. II (London: 1854) p. 196. Crowe, J.A. and G.B. Cavalcaselle. A History of Painting in North Italy: From the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century, Vol. III (London: 1912) pp. 54, 178. Holford, George Lindsay
