Francesco Marmitta Head of John the Baptist ca. 1490 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
Marco Palmezzano Head of St John the Baptist 1495 oil on panel Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan |
Anonymous Netherlandish Artist Head of John the Baptist ca. 1500 alabaster Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Giovanni Francesco Maineri Head of St John the Baptist 1502 oil on panel Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan |
Hans Baldung Head of St John the Baptist 1516 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
Andrea Solario Head of St John the Baptist before 1524 drawing Musée du Louvre |
Anonymous Italian Artist Head of John the Baptist ca. 1550-1650 oil on canvas Cleveland Museum of Art |
Domenichino Head of St John the Baptist ca. 1630 oil on canvas Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid |
Anonymous Artist Head of St John the Baptist ca. 1630-60 marble Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
Theodor Caspar von Fürstenberg Head of John the Baptist ca. 1656 mezzotint and engraving Yale Center for British Art |
Señan y González (Granada) Head of St John the Baptist (17th-century sculpture in Granada Cathedral) ca. 1895 albumen print Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
Charles Sprague Pearce Study for Beheading of St John the Baptist ca. 1881 drawing Brooklyn Museum |
attributed to Mattia Preti St John the Baptist prepared for execution ca. 1650-60 drawing Minneapolis Institute of Art |
attributed to Rembrandt Beheading of St John the Baptist 1629-30 etching Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Prince Rupert, Count Palatine Executioner with the Head of John the Baptist 1658 mezzotint Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Sebastiano Ricci Beheading of St John the Baptist ca. 1704 drawing (study for fresco) Royal Collection, Windsor |
from The Beheading
When I get close to that broken cypress-tree, will I see
the flash of the knife-blade? Thirty-five to forty paces.
Forty paces exactly, until the abrupt halting of the drum.
And then my husband's heavy head will fall
on the stones, blurred with the light. Above,
the body will remain on the makeshift platform
that will slowly soak up the blood. A branch,
moving across the face, will rub out the light from the eyes.
Jump red head,
black head bounce.
Go find the mud in the ditch. It was I
who ordered the beheading.
– Takis Sinopoulos, translated by Edmund Keeley and George Savidis (1964)