"the figure of salome stands out against a gray and indistinct background, from which she emerges carrying the severed head of the baptist on a plate, to be delivered to his mother herodias. The gospel (mt. 14, 1-12) narrates, in fact, that herod antipas had the saint arrested for open criticism of his union with herodias, already his brother's wife, but that he did not have the courage to have him killed. During a banquet in her honor, salome performed a sensual dance that impressed herod so much that he promised to grant her any wish; the girl, instigated by her mother, then asked to have "the head of john the baptist on a tray". Guido reni's version focuses on staging the contrast between the narrative episode - a girl carrying a severed head on a plate - and the face of salome, who focuses her eyes on the viewer, while at the same time maintaining a cold and impersonal distance, accentuated by the skilful pictorial technique used by reni, which makes her rich robes and headdress emerge from the canvas, through long and full-bodied brushstrokes. The work is probably the one purchased by cardinal francesco barberini on 13 december 1639 and which entered the corsini collection as a gift from monsignor bardi to pope clement xii (1730-1740), immediately becoming one of the most appreciated paintings, as evidenced by the numerous copies and the praise dedicated to it in the guides to rome between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. " [1]. Object Type: painting. Genre: religious art. Date: between 1635 and 1642 / between 1638 and 1639. Dimensions: height: 134 cm (52.7 in) ; width: 97 cm (38.1 in). Medium: oil on canvas. Collection: Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica di Palazzo Corsini. Reni, Guido - Salome with the Head of John the Baptist - 1630-1635
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