Salome with the Head of the Baptist

Image credit: National Trust Images

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When Salome has danced for King Herod she is offered anything she wishes. Her mother, Herod's wife Herodias, asks her to request the head of John the Baptist. Herod, bound by his promise, fulfils this wish.

Salome holds John the Baptist's severed head by his hair over a platter, which is supported by a semi-kneeling servant. Her gaze is direct as she looks serenely at the pale head. A servant pulls a curtain aside and looks upon the scene. Two female attendants stand behind Salome, neither seems horrified.

Batoni was one of the most famous portrait painters in Rome in the second-half of the eighteenth century. This is his copy of Guido Reni's painting of 1639/1642, originally in the Palazzo Colonna, Rome. Reni’s painting was subsequently owned by the Earls of Darnley at Cobham Hall and now hangs in the Art Institute in Chicago.

National Trust, Stourhead

Warminster

Title

Salome with the Head of the Baptist

Date

c.1740–1762

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 261.5 x W 175 cm

Accession number

732316

Acquisition method

gift from Sir Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare along with the estate, house and its contents, 1946

Work type

Painting

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National Trust, Stourhead

Stourton, Warminster, Wiltshire BA12 6QD England

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