Feast of Herod with the Beheading of St John the Baptist

The painting is dated between about 1630 and 1643, with technical files at the Museo del Prado listing c. 1630. Provenance research links the work to Elbing in the early 1640s, where it was likely commissioned by Gerhard and Margarethe von Dönhoff, Silesian nobles connected to the court of Władysław IV Vasa. An alternative hypothesis proposes Władysław IV himself as the patron, given Strobel’s appointment as court artist in 1639. Earlier attributions suggest a commission from Charles Ferdinand Vasa, prince-bishop of Breslau, before Strobel left the city in 1634. By the nineteenth century the canvas was in the Spanish royal collection, recorded under Philip V, Elisabeth Farnese, Charles III, and Ferdinand VII, and subsequently transferred to the Museo del Prado in Madrid, where it remains.

The painting is held by the Museo del Prado in Madrid, where it is currently displayed. According to the Prado's own catalogue entry, the work is dated between 1630 and 1633, earlier than some alternative scholarly datings.

Wikidata records the painting as part of the Museo del Prado collection and lists associated locations including the Royal Palace of Aranjuez and the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, suggesting it has been held in royal Spanish collections. Provenance traced through ownership records includes Philip V of Spain, Elisabeth Farnese, Charles III of Spain, and Ferdinand VII of Spain, indicating the work passed through successive Spanish royal collections before entering the Prado.

No specific temporary loan exhibitions or travelling shows are documented in the available sources.

The painting’s allegorical ambition and crowded gallery of contemporary European leaders have made it a touchstone for interpretations of mid-seventeenth-century political and religious tensions. Scholars read the work as a plea for Silesia’s deliverance during the Thirty Years’ War, aligning the city of Breslau’s heraldic device of John the Baptist’s head with Strobel’s own displacement after 1634. Its monumental scale and synthesis of biblical narrative with identifiable portraits, ranging from Wallenstein and his circle to figures such as Maarten Tromp and Charles I of England, have cemented its status as a visual manifesto of the era’s conflicts. The Prado’s sustained display has entrenched the composition in Spanish royal collections since at least the eighteenth century, reinforcing its canonical place in the museum’s holdings and in broader narratives of European Baroque allegory.