Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, 1524 – (Jacob Cornelisz Van Oostsanen) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Jacob Cornelisz Van Oostsanen

Date: 1524

Size: 72 x 54 cm

Technique: Oil On Panel

Salome, the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas, is seen here with the head of John the Baptist on a metal platter (Matthew 14:3-12; Mark 6:17-29). In the past it was suggested that the woman is not Salome but her mother Herodias,10 but that theory was thoroughly demolished by Carroll.11 Salome is standing beneath an antique stone arch, and is shown frontally at half length. In the background is a landscape with farmhouses and a river. The painting is dated 1524 in a banderole in the sky, which is also signed with the initial of Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen’s first name (I for Jacob), his house mark (AWA ligated standing for Warre) and the letter A standing for Amsterdam. Typologically, Salome with the head of John the Baptist on a sacrificial dish is a presage of Christ’s death on the cross. The scene originated in the 15th century, and was depicted several times in the 16th century. Similar contemporary compositions with an almost identical depiction of the Baptist’s head are known from the circles around Lucas van Leyden,12 Hans Baldung Grien13 and Juan de Flandes (fig. a). This Salome is very simply attired compared to Jacob Cornelisz’s Mary Magdalen of 1519, in which the Magdalen is shown with fluttering hair and costly necklaces.14 That simplification is typical of the iconographic and stylistic changes in Jacob Cornelisz’s work of this period, when traditional subjects made way for new iconographic themes, and his dark palette with saturated colours was replaced by bright pastel tints, like the pinkish red and pale turquoise used in this Salome. Instead of his characteristic “drawn” paint surfaces, as seen in the Triptych with the Adoration of the Magi of 1517 (SK-A-4706) there are more modelled passages in the later work. His manner of underdrawing also changed in this period. In contrast to the lively, often rather chaotic underdrawing in the earlier paintings, this Salome displays a more tranquil, considered way of preparing a painting, with a few wavy lines here and there (fig. b). The Salome envisaged in the underdrawing was more luxuriant than the finished figure. The artist had planned a fluttering veil to the right of her head, and indeed it can still be seen through the paint layers. She initially wore her hair loose or had a different headdress, possibly with two buttons on either side of the head (fig. c). Several strands of curly hair on both sides of the face were later painted out, making way for the present cap. The peaceful, simple composition is thus partly the result of simplifications that Jacob Cornelisz made during the painting process, which illustrate the turning-point in his oeuvre. (Daantje Meuwissen)