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Giovanni Baronzio, Feast of Herod and Beheading of John the Baptist Italian, c.1330-1335 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection |
the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.
John had said to Herod,
“It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
Herodias harbored a grudge against him
and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.
Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody.
When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him.
Herodias had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee.
His own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests.
The king said to the girl,
“Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.”
He even swore many things to her,
“I will grant you whatever you ask of me,
even to half of my kingdom.”
She went out and said to her mother,
“What shall I ask for?”
Her mother replied, “The head of John the Baptist.”
The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request,
“I want you to give me at once on a platter
the head of John the Baptist.”
The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests
he did not wish to break his word to her.
So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head.
He went off and beheaded him in the prison.
He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl.
The girl in turn gave it to her mother.
When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
Mark 6:17-29 (Excerpt from the Gospel for February 5, 2016)
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| Beheading of John the Baptist From a Book of Hours French (Paris), c. 1230-1239 New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M 92, fol. 112r |
Previously we have looked at some of the aspects of the life and iconography of St. John the Baptist, specifically his birth, his childhood and his role as baptizer and prophet. The reading
above reminds us of the circumstances of his death. We have John in prison, a captive to Herod
Antipas (not Herod the Great). Herod has
married Herodias, the divorced wife of his own brother Philip, and has adopted
her daughter, Salome. John is in prison
because of his very vocal opposition to this marriage, which is deemed to be
incestuous under Jewish law. Because of
his stance Herodias hates him, while Herod is troubled, but also fascinated by
John.
At a dinner party on his birthday to which Herod has invited a number of important guests, Salome performs a dance about which we are told nothing, except that it “delighted” the king and his guests. Apparently well satisfied Herod rather boastfully tells Salome that he will give her anything she asks for “even to half of my kingdom”. Urged on by her mother she asks for the immediate execution of John and for his head on a platter. Not exactly delighted by this request, but feeling bound by his very public promises, Herod complies.
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Jean le Noir, Herod's Feast From Petites heures de Jean de Berry French (Paris), c. 1375 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Latin 18014, fol. 212v |
John is killed by being beheaded and Salome gives the head to her mother. Thus the story of St. John the Baptist ends in a sadly capricious and trivial way. But what a story artists have woven on top of this!
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| Beheading of John the Baptist From Livre d'images de Madame Marie Belgian (Hainaut), c. 1285-1290 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Nouvelle acquistion francaise 16251, fol. 57v |
To begin with, the idea of someone being executed because of the incident of a young girl’s dance is an interesting one. Early images told the story in a straightforward manner. Sometimes one aspect of the story was the sole image, but sometimes vignettes from the entire story would be included.
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| Feast of Herod From Codex Sinopensis (New Testament) Syrian, c. 550-600 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Supplement grec 12856, fol.10v |
We might see Salome dancing, consulting her
mother about what to ask for, the beheading of the Baptist, the delivery of the
head to Salome and her presentation of it to her mother all in one image.
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| Salome Presenting the Head of John the Baptist Romanesque capital French, c. 1120 Toulouse, Musée des Augustins |
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| Herod's Feast, Salome's Dance, Beheading of John the Baptist and Presentation of His Head West Portal, Left Door of Rouen Cathedral French, c. 1150-1200 Rouen, Cathedral of Notre-Dame |
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| The Dance of Salome From The Taymouth Hours English (London), c.1325-1350 London, British Library MS Yates Thompson 13, fol. 106v |
However, it was most often simply a dance.
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| Giotto, Herod's Feast Italian, c.1315 Florence, Santa Croce, Peruzzi Chapel |
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Master of the Roman de Fauvel, Herod's Feast and Beheading of John the Baptist From Speculum historiale by Vincent of Beauvais French (Paris), c. 1333-1334 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Francais 316, fol. 336 |
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| Fra Angelico, Herod's Feast Italian, ca.1430 Paris, Musée du Louvre |
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| Masolino da Panicale, Herod's Feast Italian, 1436 Castiglione Olona, Baptistery Here we see the feast, Salome's delivery of the head to her mother and, high in the background, the burial of John's body by his disciples. |
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| Fra Filippo Lippi, Herod's Banquet Italian, 1452-1465 Prato, Cathedral |
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Master Francois and collabators, Herod's Feast From Speculum historiale by Vincent of Beauvais French (Paris), 1463 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Francais 51, fol. 270 |
Over time, though, two scenes came to dominate the
iconography. These were the dance of
Salome and her acceptance of the head of the Baptist.
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| Donatello, Herod's Feast Italian, c.1439 Lille, Musée des Beaux-Arts |
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| Benozzo Gozzoli. Herod's Feast Italian, c. 1461-1462 Washington, National Gallery of Art |
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| Domenico Ghirlandaio, Herod's Banquet Italian, c. 1486-1490 Florence, Santa Maria Novella, Tornabuoni Chapel |
Although both had existed during an earlier period, beginning in the fifteenth century these two themes begin to take off in numbers, until by the beginning of the seventeenth century these are about all that is left.
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| Jeanne de Montbaston, Beheading of Saint John the Baptist From Vies des Saints French (Paris), c. 1325-1350 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Francais 185, fol. 75r |
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| Salome Receiving the Head of John the Baptist From a Breviary French (Paris), c. 1345-1355 New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M 75, fol. 488v |
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|
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| Rogier van der Weyden, Salome Receiving the Head of the Baptist From St. John Altarpiece, Right Wing Flemish, 1455-1460 Berlin, Gemäldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Hans Memling, Salome Receiving the Head of the Baptist From St. John Altarpiece, Left Wing Italian, 1474-1479 Bruges, Memlingmuseum, Sint-Janshospitaal |
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| Jean Colombe, Beheading of Saint John the Baptist From Vita Jesu Christi by Ludolph of Saxony Franch (Bourges), c. 1475-1500 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France MS Francais 177, fol. 273 |
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| Bernard van Orley, Martyrdom of Saint John the Baptist Flemish, c. 1514-1515 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
And it is at this point that we begin to see something new. A long sequence of images shows only Salome
and the bloody head on a platter.
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| Andrea Solario, Salome Italian, c. 1506-1507 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Sebastiano del Piombo, Salome Italian, 1510 London, National Gallery |
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| Bernardino Luini, Salome Italian, c. 1527-1531 Florence, Galleria degli'Uffizi |
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| Lucas Cranach the Elder, Salome German, c.1530 Budapest, National Museum |
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| Caravaggio, Salome with the Head of the Baptist Italian, c. 1609-1610 London, National Gallery |
In these images Salome (and in one case at least Herodias) appears to respond to the proximity of the head with a kind of meditative stillness and solemn thoughtfulness even when there are other characters in the scene.
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| Francesco del Cairo, Herodias with the Head of the Baptist Italian, c. 1625-1630 Boston, Museum of Fine Arts |
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| Guido Reni, Salome Italian, 1635 Rome, Corsini Gallery |
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| Carlo Dolci, Salome Italian, c. 1665-1670 Windsor, Royal Collection Trust |
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| Paolo Gerolamo Piola, Salome Italian, c. 1700-1710 Private Collection |
Some recent scholarship has proposed that this is to be read as a reference to the Eucharist, in which the head of John, resting on the platter, is likened to the Eucharistic Body of Christ, the Host, resting on the paten at Mass. 2 I do not find the argument entirely convincing, as I think it rests on an overly zealous reading of some of the quotations from the Fathers contained in such medieval compendia as the Catena aurea of St. Thomas Aquinas. 3 Nevertheless, there is definitely something happening in these solemn images, as well as in a series of pictures of the head of John, resting on a platter, that lack any other figure, even that of Salome. This is a subject for a different essay, however.
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| Plaque with Head of John the Baptist English, 15th Century New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Aelbert Bouts, Head of St. John the Baptist On A Charger Italian, c.1500 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Andrea Solario, Head of St. John the Baptist On A Charger Italian, c.1507 Paris, Musée du Louvre |
This solemnity lasted into the eighteenth century. However, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, as the beginning ripples of what would become Romanticism began to be felt, some of these ripples affected the image of Salome’s reaction to the head. Since one of the elements of the Romantic vision is a fascination with the grotesque we begin to see Salome taking a more personal interest in the gruesome evidence of her success.
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| Henry Fuseli, Salome With the Head of John the Baptist Swiss, c. 1790s Sold at Christie's London December 3, 2014 |
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| Thomas Holloway after Henry Fuseli, Salome With the Head of John the Baptist English, 1798 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Further, under the impact of Orientalism in the early nineteenth century, with its interest in the Middle East and especially in sensuous aspects of the East, such as the harem and skimpily clad dancing girls, Salome began to transform from a young, relatively innocent woman into an alluring femme fatale.4
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| Jean Leon Gerome, Dance of the Almeh French, 1863 Dayton, Art Institute |
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| Henri Regnault, Salome French, 1870 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Gustave Moreau, Salome Dancing before Herod French, 1876 Paris, Musée Gustave Moreau |
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| Gustave Moreau, The Apparition French, ca. 1890 Paris, Musée Gustave Moreau |
Finally, just before the turn of the nineteenth into the twentieth century, a series of poems and plays, culminated in Oscar Wilde’s sensational Salome, in which Salome develops a sexual fixation on John the Baptist. Wilde's Salome eventually shocked audiences by expressing her passion through an extremely sensual kiss on the dead lips.5 Wilde's innovation was made visually manifest to viewers through the illustration of this moment in the play by Aubrey Beardsley.
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| Aubrey Beardsley, The Reward Illustration for Wilde's Salome English, 1894 |
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| Aubrey Beardsley, The Climax Illustration for Wilde's Salome English, 1894 |
These sensually loaded images were picked up by other artists and quickly developed into an opera by the then-advanced composer, Richard Strauss. Strauss' opera, Salome, remains very much alive in the contemporary operatic repertoire, both staged and in concert, as well as part of the symphonic repertoire, through the well-known "Dance of the Seven Veils" excerpt.
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| James Tissot, Salome With the Head of John the Baptist French, 1886-1896 New York, Brooklyn Museum |
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| Alphonse Maria Mucha, Salome Czech, 1897 Private Collection |
The welding of sensuality, demented love, brutality and ultimately death are reflected in many of the images that come to us from artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. But it is probably the invention of the “Dance of the Seven Veils” that had the greatest influence. Simply named in a stage direction in the Wilde play "[Salomé dances the dance of the seven veils.]", it became an actual dance in the Strauss opera (typically performed by a dancer, not the sometimes hefty singer of the role). Eventually, outside the Strauss opera, it became a vehicle for some of the music hall stars of the Gilded Age, such as Loie Fuller and Mata Hari, to expose themselves (often quite literally).
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| Georges de Feure, La Loie Fuller as Salome Comedie Parisienne Poster French, 1900 New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
This, plus the already existing Orientalist
image of the exotic dancer of the Middle East, turned Salome and her dance into
an exaggerated, near naked version of the belly dance (or the stomach dance as
it is called by the early illustrator of Wilde’s play, Aubrey Beardsley).
And that is the image that persists in art. So that St. John has become almost a minor
character, even in his own death and, indeed, scarcely appears at all.
______________________________________________________________________
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| Lovis Corinth, Salome German, 1900 Leipzig, Museum der Bildenden Künste |
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| Franz von Stuck, Salome German, 1906 Private Collection |
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| Robert Henri, Salome American, 1909 Sarasota, John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art |
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| Gaston Bussiere, Salome French, 1914 Private Collection |
© M. Duffy, 2016, new images added and old ones refreshed 2022
- For a brief history of the image of Salome see Rodney, Nanette B. “Salome”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 11, No. 7, March 1953, pp. 190-200.
- Reed, Victoria S. “Rogier van der Weyden’s “Saint John Triptych” for Miraflores and a Reconsideration of Salome”, Oud Holland, Vol. 115, No. 1, 2001/2002, pp. 1-14.
- St. Thomas Aquinas, Catena aurea, Volume II, Gospel of Mark, Chapter 6, §118, J.G.F. and J. Rivington, London, 1842. Found at: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/catena2.i.html
- Udo Kultermann. “’Dance of the Seven Veils’ Salome and Erotic Culture Around 1900”, Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 27, No. 53, 2006, pp. 187-215.
Scripture texts in this
work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition© 2010,
1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are
used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the
New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing
from the copyright owner.
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