Feast of Herod with the Beheading of St John the Baptist
Bartlomiej Strobel, 1630
The Feast of Herod with the Beheading of St John the Baptist is an enormous canvas by Bartholomeus Strobel the Younger, a painter from Silesia. Its composition brings together two moments from the biblical story of the Baptist's death: on the left, Herod Antipas's banquet, where Salome presents the saint's head; on the right, much smaller, the execution, set apart by a column. Dividing the space this way was common in earlier paintings, but Strobel pushes it much further. Among the guests are many portraits of prominent figures from the Thirty Years' War, although some identifications remain debated. For this reason the work has been read as an allegory appealing to the Christian world to save Silesia, the painter's homeland, which suffered greatly from the conflict. Its style mixes realistic portraiture, idealized faces and expressive caricature, alongside costumes from different fashions. The date and commission remain uncertain, and proposed patrons point to a Protestant milieu in Prussia and Poland.
- Painter
- Bartlomiej Strobel
- Date
- 1630
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 280 × 952 cm
- Museum
- Museo del Prado, Madrid
- Genre
- religious art
- Depicts
- John the Baptist, Banquet of Herod
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