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Click to view high resolution image Title: The Feast of Herod and the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist Creator: Benozzo Gozzoli Description: This panel is part of the predella of the Compagnia della Purifizcazione alterpiece. Gozzoli depicts three stories from the Bible: Herod’s banquet scene, the beheading of St. John the Baptist, and the presentation of St. John’s head to Herodias. The artist uses intensely geometric architectural features to show the separation of events. The lineated quality of the composition and the figures’ slowness of motion make the painting look staged and static. Herod’s banquet episode is located in the center and on the right side of the painting. Salome dances before a crimson-robed Herod who stands behind a banquet table with his courtly companions. However, her posture is so rigid that she looks like a statue. In a narrow, box-like room on the left side of Herod’s banquet, St. John the Baptist and his executioner are depicted. St. John has a golden halo surrounding his head and kneels with his hands clasped together in prayer. His execution stands statically above him with a sword raised over his head, prepared to deliver the killing blow. The last scene painted on this panel, the presentation of St. John’s head to a stiffly seated Herodias, takes place in the background in a small room attached to Herod’s banquet hall. Yet despite this architectural connection, the two scenes are clearly distinct and do not communicate with each other. Source: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Rights: National Gallery of Art (U.S.) Subject (See Also): Herod, King Salome (Biblical Figure) Feasts and Feasting John the Baptist, Saint Executions Herodias Geographic Area: Italy Century: 15 Date: 1461-1462 Related Work: Compagnia della Purificazione alterpiece: 1) Madonna and Child Enthroned among Angels and Saints, National Gallery London http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/benozzo-gozzoli-the-virgin-and-child-enthroned-among-angels-and-saints 2) Purification of the Virgin, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, John G. Johnson Collection,http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/102150.html?mulR=3918|1 Current Location: Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art Original Location: Florence, Italy Artistic Type (Category): Digital Images; Painting Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Tempera on panel Donor: Height/Width/Length(cm): 23.8 cm/24.5 cm/ Inscription: Related Resources: Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al, Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2003, pgs. 346-351

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