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Head of Saint John the Baptist

Unknown

1600

unspecified

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Mannerism Renaissance Baroque Religious Beheaded Head

Dominant colour

Head of Saint John the Baptist is a 1600 unspecified by Unknown, a Mannerism work, depicting Beheaded Head, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Unknown
When & what style?: 1600 · Mannerism
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see a severed head on a plate, eyes closed, skin pale and lips parted. This isn’t a church altarpiece—it was made to hang in someone’s home. The artist focused on the quiet horror of the moment, not the gore. The smooth brushwork makes the flesh look almost real, as if the head could speak. Look up other works from Spain or northern Italy, mid 16th - mid 17th century to see how artists handled dark stories like this.

The story of this work

Overview

Salome’s dancing so pleased her stepfather Herod that he offered her anything she wanted. Her mother advised Salome to demand John the Baptist’s head, which Salome presented to her family in an elaborate dish. Here, the head stands on its own, with a startlingly tangible presence. Despite its biblical source, this work was meant for a domestic setting, whose owner would have admired the artful presentation of a shocking story. Acquired in 1953 as the work of the Venetian Renaissance artist Titian, the painting soon lost this attribution because it lacks Titian’s distinctive brushwork. After…