Friday, March 15, 2024

Detached Heads

Richard Bird
Danton's Death by Georg Büchner
at the National Theatre, London

1982
poster
(severed head by Théodore Géricault)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Bjørn Ransve
Head in the Style of David
1977
oil on panel
National Gallery of Norway, Oslo

Odilon Redon
Head within an Aureole
1893-94
pastel and charcoal
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

William Kentridge
Braz Cubas (Head and Stone)
2000
lithograph
Yale University Art Gallery

François Chifflart
Perseus with the Head of Medusa
ca. 1870-80
etching
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Nicolai Abildgaard
Personification of Philosophy
1800
oil on canvas
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Anonymous Italian Artist after Polidoro da Caravaggio
Mercury with the Head of Argus
ca. 1595
engraving
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Giulio Romano
Hercules resting after slaying the Hydra
ca. 1535
drawing
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

attributed to Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (il Grechetto)
Still Life with Ram's Head
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Charles Albert Waltner after Constant Troyon
Tête de Bélier Mort
ca. 1873
etching
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Riccio (Andrea Briosco)
Meleager presenting the Boar's Head to Atalanta
ca. 1515-30
bronze plaquette
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Jean Fautrier
Fish Heads
ca. 1927
oil on canvas
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Michael Willmann
Beheading of St Paul
1661
etching
Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart

Jakob Frey after Giovanni Passeri
Initial D with St Denis as Cephalophore
ca. 1715
engraving
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

León Ferrari
Untitled
(series, L'Osservatore Romano)
2001
digital print
Tate Gallery

"Cephalophory (post-decapitation ambulation) and cephalology (post-decapitation locution) . . . highlight both the effectiveness of the relics and the saint's selection of the locus of his or her cult. By translating his or her own head (and by extension, the rest of the body) to a self-ordained location, a cephalophoric saint selects the spot at which he or she wishes to be buried and venerated. In doing so, the cephalophore essentially initiates and localizes the cult of his or her own relics. Thus, the hagiographic trope of cephalophory, and the related miracle of cephalology, do more than provide a dramatic tale of martyrdom. They concentrate attention on the cult of the saint's relics by revealing the power of the relics, the location at which they may be found, and the manner of their veneration."  

– Scott B. Montgomery, Securing the Sacred Head: Cephalophory and Relic Claims, published in Disembodied Heads in Medieval and Early Modern Culture, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh (distributed by Brill), 2013

Anonymous British Artist
Beheading of King Charles I
ca. 1649
oil on canvas
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh