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The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist by Caravaggio, 1608, St John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta
Saints

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

Caravaggio (Italian, 1571–1610)

1608 · Oil on Canvas · St John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta

For the Passion of Saint John the Baptist · 29 August

Sizes

image 24×16.6 in on a 24×18 in sheet

What is dpi?

Dots per inch: how many pixels of the museum’s file go into each inch of paper. Our floor is 240 for sheets up to 20 inches, 180 up to 36 inches and 120 beyond, because a larger print is seen from further away. We never offer a sheet below the floor, and the number on each size is the one you receive.

Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 308 gsm cotton rag · pigment inks · printed to order

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About this painting

Saint John the Baptist lies on the stones with his hands bound, and the man over him reaches behind his back for the knife. Through a barred window two prisoners watch. David M. Stone read that window as a warning the knights of Malta would have known, from Philippe Thomassin's image for the Order's statute on Prohibitions and Penalties. Caravaggio was made a Knight of Obedience on 14 July 1608, and on 1 December the Order met in this oratory and expelled him as a rotten and fetid limb. In the blood below the Baptist's head he signed his name, Fra Michelangelo.

Sources: David M. Stone, 'The Context of Caravaggio's Beheading of St John in Malta', Burlington Magazine 139, no. 1128 (March 1997), pp. 161-170, read 2026-09-24 · St John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta, 'Caravaggio', read 2026-09-24 · THINK magazine (University of Malta), 'Caravaggio', read 2026-09-24

But sending an executioner, he commanded that his head should be brought in a dish.

Mark 6:27 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner)

Pray with this every day  ›
The Record
Original La decollazione di san Giovanni Battista
Date 1608
Collection St John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta
Subject Saints
Season Ordinary Time
Master 18,632 px
License Public domain
Attribution St John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta

The original, as its museum records it

Artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
Date c. 1608
Medium Oil on Canvas
Dimensions 520 x 360cm
Holding St John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta
Accession none — this work has never left the church it was painted for, and a work in situ carries no inventory number

Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.

The file this print is made from

Source The Beheading of Saint John-Caravaggio (1608).jpg
Master 18,632 px on the long edge
Rights Public domain — the photograph as well as the painting
At a glance
ArtistCaravaggio (Italian, 1571–1610)
Date1608
MuseumSt John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta
MediumOil on Canvas
Dimensions520 x 360cm
Sheet sizes18×24 in, 24×36 in, 32×48 in, 40×60 in
Provenance of the file
Held bySt John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta the museum’s record
Source fileWikimedia Commons · The Beheading of Saint John-Caravaggio (1608).jpg
LicencePublic domain
Master18,632 × 12,898 px, the file our printer receives
ChainTaken from Wikimedia Commons; held as our print master.

The sheets

18×24 in sheet 24×18 in · image 24×16.6 in · archival margin · 776 dpi
24×36 in sheet 36×24 in · image 34.7×24 in · archival margin · 537 dpi
32×48 in sheet 48×32 in · image 46.2×32 in · archival margin · 403 dpi
40×60 in sheet 60×40 in · image 57.8×40 in · archival margin · 322 dpi

Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 18,632 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.