Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist

Of the numerous subjects revolving ‘round St. John the Baptist, one of the popular ones is Salome with the severed head on a charger. Lest we forget, it was not Salome who was the instigator in the beheading of St. John the Baptist, but Herodias, her mother. Herodias was angered at St. John the Baptist as he stated flatly that her marriage to Herod Antipas was illegal. She had been married to his half brother and divorced him. Then she married Herod Antipas, who also divorced his wife Phasaelis to marry Herodias. Be that as it may, many see this story as an example of the ultimate castration and Salome the castrator.

A number of artists include Salome at the execution. She stands as an impassive witness to this horrendous deed or in some cases an interested collaborator. There is no Biblical reference attesting to Salome’s presence at the execution of St. John the Baptist. By her inclusion, the artist, psychologically, heaps additional calumny upon Salome, casting her as an evil, gloating, possessed being. Bernardo Luini in Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist (1500) and an Anonymous Lorraine Master (c. 1630) both depict Salome with a slight smirk of satisfaction on her face (See below). In both cases the rough, menacing figure of the muscular executioner is prominent, placing the princess as witness to the beheading.

Numerous artists have portrayed Salome receiving the head of St. John the Baptist with disgust. Several of these renditions cast Salome in a different light. They tend to focus on her more feminine, delicate side. Rogier van der Weyden (1455) portrays the princess turning away from the grisly sight as the bald-headed executioner presents her with the severed head while torrents of blood gush from the neck of St. John the Baptist. Hans Memling’s 1474 depicts the timorous Salome, furtively glancing at the severed head as it is placed on the charger which she is holding (See below). There is a hint of apprehensiveness in Salome in Caravaggio’s 1607 version. As with nearly all of Caravaggio’s paintings, the genre theme predominates. Salome is depicted as a common figure along with the whizzed servant and the rough executioner (See below). The Caravaggio depiction is even more startling as aesthetic distance is abolished and the viewer is forced into close proximity with the action.

Roger van der Weyden, Beheading of St John the Baptist (1455)

Hans Memling, Beheading of St. John the Baptist (1474)

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist (1607)

There are a number of compositions which depict Salome receiving the head of St. John the Baptist without any emotion, whatsoever. A strange non-emotional response to the beheading. This approach tends to psychologically separate Salome from her role in the decapitation (See below). Andrea Solari’s Salome of 1506, calmly accepts the severed head, averting her eyes slightly. The Salome of Lucas Cranach (1530) in her sumptuous garb conveys the look of one mildly satisfied with her trophy. Bernardo Luini’s Salome of 1500 seems totally divorced from the grisly head. The Salome by the Lorraine School Master (1630) gazes at us, the viewers, emotionless as she receives the severed head. And, Carel Fabritius (16300 presents a Salome who gazes at the executioner as though she was young lady at the market haggling over a vegetable (See below).

Andrea Solari, Salome with Head of St John Baptist (1506)

Lucas Cranach, Salome with Head of John Baptist (1530)

Bernardo Luini, Salome with Head of John the Baptist (a. 1500)

Lorraine School Master, Salome with Head of St John Baptist (c. 1630)

Carel Fabritius, Beheading of St John Baptist (1640)

Receiving with impassivity, or revulsion, or mild interest the head of St. John the Baptist is one thing, but touching it, fondling it is quite another. There are a number of paintings which show Salome in direct physical contact with the severed head. This hands on contact may be viewed with some revulsion, but it also directly links Salome with the martyrdom. In the paintings of Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist by Pierre Bonnaud (1865) and Lovis Corinth (1900), the contacts take on sexual overtones bordering on necrophilia, or a decidedly unnatural act, particularly with the state of undress seen in Salome. The emphasis seems to be on the nude or semi-nude erotic figure of the princess. Aubrey Beardsley’s Salome assumes witch-like characteristics in his stark black and white illustration (See below), again underlining the erotic, fetishistic action. The hair of St. John the Baptist assumes reptilian character--a male Medusa. This may proceed from Oscar Wilde’s play of Salome and the later Richard Strauss’s opera of the same name in which Herodias is severed from the plot ostensibly and the beheading comes from St. John the Baptist’s refusal to submit to Salome’s sexual advances.

Pierre Bonnaud-Salome with the Head of St. John Baptist (1865)

Lovis Corinth, Salome with the Head of St. John Baptist (1900)

Aubrey Beardsley, Salome with the Head of St. John Baptist (1896)