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| Head of St John the Baptist ca. 1470-90 Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
Huge numbers of small alabaster religious tchotchkes were carved in England during the 1400s; Many were exported to other parts of Christian Europe. This was a lucky thing, because when the Reformation arrived in England during the 1500s, artifacts like these were hunted out and pulverized. After that, very little English alabaster survived in England. The lovely collection of English alabaster now displayed at the Victoria and Albert Museum (including this group of Baptist heads) was mostly procured on the Continent during the 19th century from among the still-extant export-pieces.
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| Head of St John the Baptist ca. 1470-90 Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Head of St John the Baptist 15th century Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Head of St John the Baptist 15th century Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Head of St John the Baptist 15th century Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Head of St John the Baptist late 15th century Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Head of St John the Baptist late 15th century Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Head of St John the Baptist late 15th century Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Head of St John the Baptist late 15th century Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Head of St John the Baptist late 15th century Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
The wound that regularly appears above the Saint's eyebrow in these reliefs owes its origin to medieval elaboration of the Salome story. It seems that after Salome received the Head on a tray, her vindictive hatred was still not satisfied and she inflicted a wound on the Head with a knife.
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| Head of St John the Baptist late 15th century Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Head of St John the Baptist late 15th century Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
Figures of St John the Baptist could sometimes be identified by the camel skin he wore during his sojourn in the desert. In the two alabaster figures below, the camel's head (in a flattened and abstract form) can be discerned between the saint's feet.
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| St John the Baptist late 15th century Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| St John the Baptist Preaching late 15th century Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Quenching of the Ashes of St John the Baptist 15th century Alabaster, carved in England Victoria & Albert Museum |
Medieval legend also held that after Salome danced her dance and won the Head of St John the Baptist on a tray, the Emperor Julian the Apostate ordered the Saint's body to be burned. The alabaster relief immediately above shows the cremation fires as they are quenched with water prior to the scattering of the bones.