The Head of Saint John the Baptist Brought before Herod
c. 1455
Medium
Tempera on panel
Dimensions
68.5 × 40.2 cm (27 × 15 13/16 in.); Framed: 79.4 × 52.1 × 8.9 cm (31 1/4 × 20 1/2 × 3 1/2 in.)
Classification
tempera
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
16171
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This series of panels illustrates scenes from the life of Saint John the Baptist, a prophet who foretold Jesus’s arrival as the Christian savior. The Art Institute’s collection includes six panels that were originally part of a group of 12 that possibly formed the doors of a reliquary shrine to the saint. The narrative begins as John leaves civilization, entering the wilderness to become a hermit. In a following scene, John wears a hair shirt, a coarse undergarment symbolizing his ascetic life,...