775 - Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, Feast of Herod, Large Oil Painting

Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, Feast of Herod, Large Oil Painting Oil on canvas. Unsigned. Banqueting scene against a dark ground: at the centre a young woman with a golden diadem, a pearl necklace, a pearl bracelet and a drop earring, in a lilac dress with a golden belt clasp and a dark blue cloak; she raises her index finger to her chin and looks aside. From the left a serving woman in a green dress with a red cloth steps forward and holds out to her the severed head on a dish. At the right a bearded old man with a turban, a gold-embroidered robe and a heavy chain of stones, a gilt footed goblet in his hand. On the light-covered table a shallow oval platter with an apple, a pear and grapes, behind it a dish of small green fruits, beside it a dish of red berries and a gilt covered vessel on ball feet. Condition commensurate with age, craquelure, extensive retouching, superficial scratches. Image 100x132 cm (HxW). Framed in a moulding with burr wood veneer, inside a fine gold corded fillet, outside black wave mouldings, frame width 9.5 cm The scene follows the account in Mark and Matthew: Salome dances at the birthday feast of Herod and, at the instigation of her mother Herodias, asks for the head of John the Baptist. The subject has been among the most popular biblical themes since the 16th c. because it combines portrait, still life and history in a single composition; the version showing the handing over of the dish at a laid table goes back to Netherlandish and Italian models of the 17th c. and was taken up again and again into the 19th c. The half-length composition against a dark ground, the large format and the richly laid table point to a workshop production in this tradition.