The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and the Feast of Herod
The original, as its museum records it
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
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About this painting
A doorway splits the panel in two. Through it, a soldier carries the Baptist's head on a gold platter — behind him, in a low cell, the executioner's sword still raised, the blow not finished; ahead, a laid table.
Carved alone, head and platter became what Barbara Baert calls a "substitute liturgical object during the veneration of the Host." Herod draws one hand to his chest as the platter arrives — grieved, but bound by an oath sworn before his guests. Salome, mid-step: her dance bought the head.
One threshold holds the bare cell and the rich hall together.
Sources: Explains the 'continuous narrative' (istoria continua) device used to separate/unite successive moments of one story via architecture, as used in this composition type · Louvre catalogue record for RF 196 confirming medium (tempera on poplar), object type (predella element), and attribution to Fra Angelico · Barbara Baert (KU Leuven), 'Vox clamantis in deserto: The Johannesschüssel', Open Arts Journal 4 (2014). · Mark 6:22-26, Douay-Rheims (Challoner).
But sending an executioner, he commanded that his head should be brought in a dish.
Mark 6:27 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner), from the project’s own corpus at data/bible_drc.js
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 8,830 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.