medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture



In Latin-rite churches, in churches using the Byzantine Rite, in some churches of the Anglican Communion, in some Lutheran churches, and in the Polish National Catholic Church 29. August is the feast of the Decollation / Beheading / Martyrdom of the John the Baptist / John the Forerunner.  Herewith a few visuals:





I: Head relics and other body relics of St. John the Baptist / John the Forerunner:



α) Supposed head of John the Baptist, kept as a relic in the cathédrale Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Amiens since the early thirteenth century:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/73553452@N00/2849375888/

https://medrelart.shutterfly.com/france/578#579 [photograph courtesy of Marjorie Greene]

http://tinyurl.com/39t68xt



β) Supposed head of John the Baptist, kept as a relic in Rome's church of San Silvestro in Capite since at least the thirteenth century:

http://tinyurl.com/nqgtb2

http://tinyurl.com/nmhjce



γ) Supposed right arm of John the Baptist, now in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul:

http://tinyurl.com/2eqv6zl



δ) Supposed right hand of John the Baptist, now in the Dionysiou Monastery on Mount Athos:

http://tinyurl.com/24fls8u



ε) Supposed finger bones of John the Baptist, said to be those donated by the pious woman Tigris in the later sixth century (cf. St. Gregory of Tours, _In gloria martyrum_, 13) and kept as relics in the cathedral of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne (Savoie):

http://tinyurl.com/2czuvpx





II: Some period-pertinent images bearing upon John's decollation:



a) Herod's feast, Salome dancing, and the decollation as depicted in a later ninth-century Gospels from Chartres (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 9386, fol. 146v):

http://tinyurl.com/2euycde



b) The decollation as depicted in a twelfth-century Greek-language Gospels of unknown origin (Paris, BnF, ms. Supplément grec 914, fol. 42r):

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10532609z/f87.item.zoom



c) Herod and Salome and Herod's feast on an earlier twelfth-century double capital with three faces (ca. 1125-1150) in the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse:

http://tinyurl.com/2brzxyr

http://tinyurl.com/3yhg99v

This capital is discussed in a Tribune de l'Art page on an exposition of 2005 in which it was shown ("La France romane au temps des premiers Capétiens, 987-1152"):

http://www.latribunedelart.com/Expositions_2005/France_Romane_231.htm



d) The decollation and the presentation of John's head to Herodias as depicted in one of four panels of a full-page illumination in the late twelfth-century so-called Bible of Saint Bertin (ca. 1190-1200; Den Haag, KB, ms. 76 F 5, fol. 30v, sc. 1B):

http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76f5%3A030v_min_b1



e) Herod's feast and the decollation as portrayed in relief (on the lintel, at center and right; at left, the baptism of Jesus) by Benedetto Antelami on the north portal (ca. 1210) of the baptistery of Parma:

http://tinyurl.com/j24z9xn

Detail views (Herod's feast):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/renzodionigi/3009884735

http://tinyurl.com/jp886y8

More views here (scroll down to "Il portale della Vergine"):

http://tinyurl.com/2b6dbet



f) Salome dancing at at Herod's feast and the decollation, Salome presents John's head to Herodias, and Salome dancing at Herod's feast (lower register at center) as depicted in the later thirteenth-century John the Baptist fresco (ca. 1270) in the Basilika Mariä Himmelfahrt in Seckau:

http://tinyurl.com/zratxwn

Detail view (the decollation):

http://www.burgenseite.com/faschen/seckau_ikon_01b.jpg



g) Herod's feast and the decollation as depicted in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the _Legenda aurea_ (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 114v):

http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ds/huntington/images//000936A.jpg



h) The decollation as depicted in the late thirteenth-century Livre d'images de Madame Marie (ca. 1285-1290; Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 16251, fol. 57v):

http://tinyurl.com/2u576u4



i) The decollation (Salome standing by with a dish) as depicted in a fourteenth-century copy from Saint-Omer of Guiard des Moulins' _Bible historiale_ (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 152, fol. 399v):

http://tinyurl.com/2delaqx



j) Scenes as depicted in the early fourteenth-century St. John the Baptist window (bay 225; ca. 1305-1315) in the église Saint-Père in Chartres:

1) Salome dancing at Herod's feast:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sgparry/5634400849

2) The decollation (Salome standing by with a dish):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sgparry/5634981530/

3) Salome presents John's head to Herodias:

http://therosewindow.com/pilot/Chartres-st-pere/w225l-4.htm



k) The decollation (Salome standing by with a dish) as depicted by Petrus de Raimbaucourt in an earlier fourteenth-century festal missal from Amiens (1323; Den Haag; KB, ms. 78 D 40, fol. 108r):

http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_78d40%3A108r_init



l) The decollation and the presentation of John's head at Herod's feast as depicted by Giovanni Baronzio in an earlier fourteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1330-1335) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York:

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459045



m) Scenes as portrayed in relief by Andrea Pisano on his earlier fourteenth-century bronze south doors (betw. 1330 and 1336) for the baptistery in Florence:

1) Salome asks for John's head:

http://tinyurl.com/jakbqab

2) the decollation:

http://tinyurl.com/zm3bnux

3) John's head presented to Herod:

http://tinyurl.com/zrjcvhf

4) Salome presents John's head to Herodias:

http://tinyurl.com/hzftf2b



n) Herod's feast and the decollation as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (1330s) of the vault of the diakonikon of the church of the Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:

1) Herod's feast:

http://tinyurl.com/j8ojt62

Detail view (Salome standing or dancing with John's head on a platter):

http://tinyurl.com/2c6gru3

2) the decollation:

http://tinyurl.com/jewrmst



o) Salome dancing with John's head on a platter as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century fresco (prob. before 1335) in the church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki:

http://tinyurl.com/hwsac7y



p) The decollation as depicted (lower register) in an August calendar scene in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the narthex in the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:

http://tinyurl.com/y9h2efw



q) The decollation as depicted in a mid-fourteenth-century copy, from the workshop of Richard and Jeanne de Montbaston, of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1348; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 229v):

http://tinyurl.com/268bkv8



r) The decollation, the presentation of John's head, and the burial of his headless corpse as depicted in a mid-fourteenth-century mosaic in Venice's basilica patriarcale metropolitana primaziale di San Marco:

http://www.wga.hu/art/zgothic/mosaics/6sanmarc/9baptis2.jpg



s) Salome dancing with John's head on a platter as depicted in a seemingly late fourteenth- or fifteenth-century fresco in the church of St. John (Ag. Ioannis) in Deliana (Chania prefecture) on Crete:

http://tinyurl.com/zvlenvy

Detail view:

http://tinyurl.com/jqzlo7o



t) John's head (mostly shown on a charger) as portrayed in relief in a number of fifteenth-century alabaster carvings from England in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London:

http://spenceralley.blogspot.com/2016/02/english-alabaster-heads-of-st-john.html



u) The decollation as depicted (left-hand column; right-hand column: St. Fiacre) in the early fifteenth-century Hours of René of Anjou (ca. 1405-1410; London, BL, Egerton MS 1070, fol. 99v; image zoomable):

www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=egerton_ms_1070_f100v



v) The decollation and the presentation to Herodias of John's head as depicted in the early fifteenth-century Châteauroux Breviary (ca. 1414; Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2, fol. 311r):

http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_054157-p.jpg



w) The decollation and Salome presenting John's head as depicted in an earlier fifteenth-century _Bible historiale_ (ca. 1430; Den Haag, KB, ms. KB, 78 D 38 II, fol. 162r):

http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_78d38%3Adl2_162r_min



x) The decollation (Salome at left receiving a dish) as depicted in the Suffrages of a mid-fifteenth-century book of hours from Paris (ca. 1440-1450; London BL, Egerton MS 2019, fol. 208r):

www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=egerton_ms_2019_f208r



y) The decollation as depicted in an historiated initial "O" detached from a later fifteenth-century choir book of Italian origin (ca. 1451-1475; London, BL, MS Additional 18197, fol. A):

http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=36094



z) Herod's banquet as depicted by Filippo Lippi in a mid- or slightly later fifteenth-century fresco (betw. 1452 and 1465) in the choir of the cattedrale di Santo Stefano in Prato:

http://www.wga.hu/art/l/lippi/filippo/1450pr/23herod.jpg

Detail view (Salome dancing):

http://www.wga.hu/art/l/lippi/filippo/1450pr/23herod1.jpg

Detail view (John's head presented to Herodias):

http://www.wga.hu/art/l/lippi/filippo/1450pr/23herod2.jpg



aa) The decollation as depicted by Rogier van der Weyden in a panel of his mid-fifteenth-century St. John Altarpiece (ca. 1455-1460) in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin:

http://tinyurl.com/2dafav3

Detail view:

http://tinyurl.com/28bpnrk

The altarpiece's three panels (views greatly expandable):

http://tinyurl.com/3amauub



bb) The decollation as depicted in a later fifteenth-century copy (ca. 1480-1490) of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 245, fol. 74v):

http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8425999d/f158.item.zoom



cc) The decollation (Salome standing by with a dish), Salome holding John's head on a dish, and Herod's banquet as depicted in a late fifteenth-century fresco (restored in 1876-1878) in St. Peter and Paul's Church, Pickering (N Yorks):

http://www.paintedchurch.org/pickhero.htm

http://tinyurl.com/ha84bpw



dd) The decollation (at right) and the presentation of John's head at Herod's banquet (at left) as portrayed in relief on the late medieval jubé (betw. 1490 and 1530) in the cathedral of Amiens:

http://tinyurl.com/84chv7l

Detail view (the decollation, in different light):

http://tinyurl.com/dxg8mb3



ee) Scenes as depicted in earlier sixteenth-century glass windows (1525; restored, 1870-1871) in the Universitätskapelle of the Münster in Freiburg im Breisgau:

1) the decollation:

http://tinyurl.com/2657ahp

2) Salome presenting John's head to Herod:

http://tinyurl.com/26aa336



Best,

John Dillon



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