The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

1455–60

Giovanni di Paolo (Italian, 1398–1482)

Blood spills from Saint John the Baptist’s freshly severed neck as a henchman places his head on a golden platter. Sienese painter Giovanni di Paolo illustrated the life of John the Baptist in a twelve-part series; this panel depicts the moments just after John’s beheading, ordered by King Herod at the request of his daughter, Salome. The gruesome details contrast with the other figures’ placid expressions and the executioner’s casual pose as he returns his sword to its scabbard. The building itself, with its strict geometry, is likewise at odds with the rivulets of blood that pour over the patterned street.

Other panels in the series include scenes of John’s birth, his departure for a hermit’s life in the wilderness, his prophecy of Christ’s coming, performing Jesus’s baptism, and his imprisonment. The complex, detailed settings exploit the narrow proportions of the panels and set off the figures’ expressive poses. Throughout the series, the artist repeated background elements, colors, and patterns to create a unified, easily legible narrative. Assembled in three rows, the original ensemble probably served as doors for a shrine containing a sacred relic (probably a body part) associated with John the Baptist. Of the eleven panels that survive, six are at the Art Institute.

Status: On View, Gallery 204
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Giovanni di Paolo
Title: The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1455–1460
Medium: Tempera on panel
Dimensions: 68.6 × 39.1 cm (27 × 15 3/8 in.); Framed: 82 × 53.4 × 7 cm (32 1/4 × 21 × 2 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
Reference Number: 1933.1014
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/16169/manifest.json

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New York, F. Kleinberger Galleries, Italian Primitives, 1917, no. 58.
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Edourd Aynard, Lyons, by 1907 [see Perkins 1907]; sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, December 1–4, 1913 no. 51, to Kleinberger, Paris, as agent for Martin A. Ryerson (died 1932), Chicago, 1914 [an entry for June 18, 1914, in Ryerson’s notebook reads: “Bot [sic] of Kleinberter, Paris, 6 panels by Giovanni di Paolo (purchased by him at Aynard sale for 160 000 fr + 10%);” Art Institute Archives]; on loan to the Art Institute from 1914; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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