Italian school; 17th century.

Italian school; 17th century.
‘The Head of Saint John the Baptist’.
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 56 x 75 cm; 67 x 87 cm (frame).

In this canvas the author deals with a theme of great dramatism, very much in accordance with the popular sensibility of the Baroque period, strongly influenced by the Counter-Reformation, which demanded from art a realistic language so that the faithful could understand and identify with what was represented, and an expression endowed with an intense emotional content to increase the fervour and devotion of the people. Thus we see the decapitated head of the Baptist, placed on the golden tray on which it was given to Salome, a licence taken by the artist, as in the biblical text the Baptist's head is served on a silver platter. In the present image there are no narrative elements to tell the story; it is a static, devotional composition in which we see only the severed head, resting on its own blood, on the tray placed on a table dressed in a rich red cloth. The space is undefined and closed, with a dark background worked in neutral tones against which the saint's head stands out, strongly illuminated by a light of Tenebrist heritage, directed and contrasted, which leaves the secondary areas of the composition in semi-darkness, focusing the viewer's attention on the saint's dead face. The only attribute that accompanies the saint is his cross with its phylactery, a characteristic element of the saint's iconography, although this scene is dominated by the surplus as the artist focuses his attention on John's face, which already shows the signs of death, as his eyelids droop and his skin is yellowish.
John the Baptist was the son of the priest Zechariah and Elizabeth, cousin of the Virgin Mary. He retired at a young age to the Judean desert to lead an ascetic life and preach penance, and recognised in Jesus, who was baptised by him, the Messiah foretold by the prophets. A year after Christ's baptism, in the year 29, John was arrested and imprisoned by the tetrarch of Galilee Herod Antipas, whose marriage to Herodias, his niece and sister-in-law, he had dared to censure. Finally St. John was beheaded, and his head given to Salome as a reward for his beautiful dances, after a stratagem operated by Herodias.