Who painted Salome with the Head of the Baptist?

Hans Memling painted Salome with the Head of the Baptist in 1479.

What Bible passage does Salome with the Head of the Baptist depict?

Salome with the Head of the Baptist depicts the biblical scene from Mark 6:14-29.

Where is Salome with the Head of the Baptist located?

Salome with the Head of the Baptist is housed at Memling Museum, St.John's Hospital, Mariastraat 38, Bruges.

Salome with the Head of the Baptist by Hans Memling

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The St John Altarpiece (sometimes the Triptych of the two Saints John or the Triptych of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist) is a large oil-on-oak hinged-triptych altarpiece completed around 1479 by the Early Netherlandish master painter Hans Memling. It was commissioned in the mid-1470s in Bruges for the Old St. John's Hospital (Sint-Janshospitaal) during the building of a new apse. It is signed and dated 1479 on the original frame – its date of installation – and is today still at the hospital in the Memling museum.

The altarpiece consists of five paintings – a central inner panel and two double-sided wings. The panels on the reverse of wings are visible when the shutters are closed, and show the hospital donors flanked by their patron saints. The interior contains a central panel with the enthroned Virgin and Child flanked by saints; the left wing features episodes from the life of John the Baptist with emphasis on his beheading; the right wing shows the apocalypse as recorded by John the Evangelist, pictured writing on the island of Patmos.

St John Altarpiece is one of Memling's more ambitious works, and shares near-identical scenes with two of other his works: the Donne Triptych, in London's National Gallery, and the Virgin and Child with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Barbara in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The left wing depicts the beheading of St John the Baptist. His headless body lies in the left foreground and seems to reach out of the picture, as blood spurts from his severed neck, spraying his hands and the nearby plants. The foreground in the flora are reduced to the extent that they could not have been painted without a magnifying glass. The executioner stands with his back to the viewer, placing the freshly severed head on Salome's platter. The executioner, Salome, and three gesticulating bystanders form a circle around John's headless and lifeless body. According to Ridderbos, the five figures mirror and create a sense of unity with the five holy figures in the central panel. The scene is set in a courtyard in front of Herod's palace; the banquet that preceded the Baptist's decapitation can be seen in the left-midground of the palace, where minstrels play for Salome's dance. The scene is well-lit and with good architectural perspective. Albert Michiels described Salome as ravishing but emotionless; she receives the head, with her eyes held aloof. Other versions of St John's beheading (decollation) more typically showed Salome holding an empty plate for the executioner; with an early version typified in a miniature in the Petites Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry.

Details

Artist: Hans Memling
Created: 1479
Medium: oil on panel
Dimension: 79cm × 176cm
Passage: Mark 6:14-29
Housed at: Memling Museum, St.John's Hospital Mariastraat 38, Bruges

Found in: Mark, Mark 6, 15th century, Death of the Baptist, Saint John Altarpiece Memling

Mark 6:14-29

14 King Herod heard this, for his name had become known, and he said, “John the Baptizer has risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.”

15 But others said, “He is Elijah.” Others said, “He is a prophet, or like one of the prophets.”

16 But Herod, when he heard this, said, “This is John, whom I beheaded. He has risen from the dead.”

17 For Herod himself had sent out and arrested John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, for he had married her.

18 For John said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”

19 Herodias set herself against him, and desired to kill him, but she couldn’t,

20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and kept him safe. When he heard him, he did many things, and he heard him gladly.

21 Then a convenient day came, that Herod on his birthday made a supper for his nobles, the high officers, and the chief men of Galilee.

22 When the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and those sitting with him. The king said to the young lady, “Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you.”

23 He swore to her, “Whatever you shall ask of me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.”

24 She went out, and said to her mother, “What shall I ask?” She said, “The head of John the Baptizer.”

25 She came in immediately with haste to the king, and asked, “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptizer on a platter.”

26 The king was exceedingly sorry, but for the sake of his oaths, and of his dinner guests, he didn’t wish to refuse her.

27 Immediately the king sent out a soldier of his guard, and commanded to bring John’s head, and he went and beheaded him in the prison,

28 and brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the young lady; and the young lady gave it to her mother.

29 When his disciples heard this, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.

Mark 6:14-29 · World English Bible

The artist

Hans Memling

1430 - 1494

Seligenstadt, Germany

Hans Memling (also spelled Memlinc; c. 1430 – 11 August 1494) was a German painter who moved to Flanders and worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. He was born in the Middle Rhine region, and probably spent his childhood in Mainz. He had moved to the Netherlands by 1465 and spent time in the Brussels workshop of Rogier van der Weyden. He was subsequently made a citizen of Bruges, where he became one of the leading artists, painting…