Decapitation of Saint John the Baptist

Print
Location: 
Not on view
Artists / Makers / Authorities: 
Pedro García de Benabarre
Documented in Zaragoza, Benabarre, Barcelona, Lleida and Barbastro, 1445-1485
Museum tags: 
Social tags: 
Description:

In the centre of the composition, Salome is holding a tray with the head of Saint John the Baptist, who has just been beheaded by the executioner. With a crowd looking on, craning their necks through the windows of a noble building, she appears accompanied by a retinue of damsels and musicians, which makes the scene look shockingly joyful.Works of the set.Saint Michael Archangel, Pedro García de Benabarre, 1455-1480. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston).

Painting

c. 1473-1482

196.7 x 121.7 x 6 cm

Purchase, 1907

Inventory number: 

015883-000

Century: 15th
Subject: Religion
Tempera on wood with gold finishes
Compartment of an altarpiece devoted to Saint John the Baptist. The museum keeps five more panels from the same work. Another panel with Saint Michael is kept at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston) and the whereabouts of other pieces is unknown. From the parish church of Sant Joan del Mercat de Lleida.
image for: Pere Garcia de Benavarri - Decapitació de sant Joan Baptista - Cap a 1473-1482
Pere Garcia de Benavarri - Decapitació de sant Joan Baptista - Cap a 1473-1482