Hans Memling ca. 1433 – 1494

Salome with the Head of the Baptist

oil on panel (176 × 79 cm) — 1479 Memling Museum, St.John's Hospital, Bruges

Hans Memling biography

This work is linked to Mark 6:28

Salomé's wish comes true: she receives the head of John the Baptist. In the background to the left the preceding episode can be seen. At a banquet, Herod asks his stepdaughter to make a wish. She asks for the Baptist's head, out of revenge for him criticizing the marriage of Herod and Salomé's mother Herodias.

The panel is the left wing of a triptych that served as an altarpiece: the "altar of John the Baptist and John the Evangelist". It was made for St. John's Hospital in Bruges, where it remains.

The right wing shows St John on Pathmos.

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