1638
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
The Feast of Herod (recto) is a 1638 by Peter Paul Rubens, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a crowd at a banquet table, Herod flinching as Salome lifts the lid off a platter holding John the Baptist’s head. Rubens drew this fast, right on the paper, to plan a bigger painting. The lines are loose, almost like he’s thinking out loud. You can feel the shock in Herod’s shoulders before he even moves. If you like how Rubens turns a quick sketch into drama, look up *chiaroscuro*—the way light and dark push the story forward.
Peter Paul Rubens had a large studio in Antwerp and used drawing to prepare for large paintings as well as to direct the many pupils who assisted him. Striking in its immediacy, the drawing on the recto of this sheet of paper is a preparatory study for the Feast of Herod painting now at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Herod, wearing a large cap and wrapped in a mantle, shrinks back in horror as Salome uncovers a charger that holds the head of Saint John the Baptist. Smiling, Herodias grabs the platter with her left hand and, in a chilling detail, gestures toward the charger with a…
The two stories that Rubens depicted on the front and back of this sheet of paper each feature a gruesome death, the result of revenge at the hands of a powerful woman.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ROO-bənz; Dutch: ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat.
See the richer artist page![The Apotheosis of Saint Mark [recto and verso]](https://pub-3a17a9933ad74fb28aa30fa758592f23.r2.dev/artworks/cd3a4ec627f729de/thumb.webp)
![Various Sketches of the Madonna and Child (recto); Architectural Studies (verso) [partially visible on recto]](https://pub-3a17a9933ad74fb28aa30fa758592f23.r2.dev/artworks/90586edfc8e8efd5/thumb.webp)
