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Source Description
Salome's story is described in the biblical Gospels of Mark and Matthew. After dancing for King Herod of Galilee, her new stepfather, she was granted any wish she desired. Influenced by her mother, Herodias, she asked that John the Baptist--who was then imprisoned for condemning Herod and Herodias' marriage--be executed. Here, Salome enacts the most gruesome part of the story, presenting the prophet's head on a platter. In the Renaissance, the story was believed to presage the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and the presentation of the Eucharist during Catholic liturgy. Altdorfer's drawing emphasizes Salome's pride--a dangerous sin--through her elaborate garments, billowing, plumed headdress, and flowing long hair. He articulated these details using black ink highlighted with white gouache on paper darkened with brown wash and a finely pointed pen.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
126219
label
Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
126219
contentType
drawing
title
Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist
description
Salome's story is described in the biblical Gospels of Mark and Matthew. After dancing for King Herod of Galilee, her new stepfather, she was granted any wish she desired. Influenced by her mother, Herodias, she asked that John the Baptist--who was then imprisoned for condemning Herod and Herodias' marriage--be executed. Here, Salome enacts the most gruesome part of the story, presenting the prophet's head on a platter. In the Renaissance, the story was believed to presage the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and the presentation of the Eucharist during Catholic liturgy. Altdorfer's drawing emphasizes Salome's pride--a dangerous sin--through her elaborate garments, billowing, plumed headdress, and flowing long hair. He articulated these details using black ink highlighted with white gouache on paper darkened with brown wash and a finely pointed pen.
date
c. 1517
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79905474
creators
11620
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Sheet: 19.1 x 12.6 cm (7 1/2 x 4 15/16 in.); Secondary Support: 20 x 13 cm (7 7/8 x 5 1/8 in.)
cul
Germany
accession
1948.44
Source extras
tec
pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash and white gouache; framing lines in pen and black ink
tombstone
Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist, c. 1517. Albrecht Altdorfer (German, c. 1480–1538). Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash and white gouache; framing lines in pen and black ink; sheet: 19.1 x 12.6 cm (7 1/2 x 4 15/16 in.); secondary support: 20 x 13 cm (7 7/8 x 5 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1948.440
supportMaterials
description
laid paper prepared with dark brown ground, laid down on cream(3) laid paper; window mount of cream(3) laid paper mounted to recto
collection
DR - German
inscriptions
inscription
lower right, in brown ink: 17; on paper mounted to recto, lower right, in brown ink: 40; verso of secondary support, center, in graphite: Liechtenstein
didYouKnow
The artist colored the paper on this drawing a dark brown in order to emphasize the highlights and shadows created with inks.
citations
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Henry S. Francis. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/June, 1950</em>. No. 6/pt 1. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978: 115-118.
page_number
p. 117-118.
citation
Francis, Henry. "A Painting and Drawing by Albrecht Altdorfer." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>37, no. 6 (June 1950): 115-118.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 117; Reproduced: p. 123
citation
Winzinger, Franz, and Albrecht Altdorfer. Albrecht Altdorfer Zeichnungen. München: R. Piper & Co, 1952.
page_number
no. 64, pp. 82-83.
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 581
citation
Oettinger, Karl. Altdorfer-Studien. [On Albrecht and Erhard Altdorfer. With Reproductions]. Nurnberg: Verlag Hans Carl, 1959.
page_number
p. 111
citation
Oettinger, Karl, "Ein Altdorfer-Schuler: Der Zeichner der Pariser Landsknechte," in Möhle, Hans. Festschrift Friedrich Winkler. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1959: pp. 201-212.
page_number
pp. 210-212
citation
Moskowitz, Ira, and Victoria Thorson. Great Drawings of All Time. New York: Shorewood Publishers, 1962.
page_number
no. 423
citation
Stange, Alfred. Malerei der Donauschule. München: Bruckmann, 1964.
page_number
p. 91
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 112
citation
Pfeiffer, Wolfgang, "Die Zeichnungen Michael Osterndorfers am Kirchenmodell der Schonen Maria zu Regensburg," Pantheon. XXIV (1966): pp. 378-387.
page_number
p. 384,
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 112
citation
Talbot, Charles W., and Alan Shestack.<em> Prints and Drawings of the Danube School; An Exhibition of South German and Austrian Graphic Art of 1500 to 1560</em>. New Haven: Printed by the Carl Purington Rollins Printing-Office of the Yale University Press, 1969.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 37, pp. 44-45
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 131
citation
Meder, Joseph, and Winslow Ames. The Mastery of Drawing. 2 vols. New York, N.Y.: Abaris Books, 1978.
page_number
I, pp. 128, 435, II, p. 74
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, Miller, Michael. Drawing, a Glossary of Materials: Selections from the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1987.
page_number
p. 9
citation
Merkel, Kerstin. Salome: Ikonographie im Wandel. Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang, 1990.
page_number
pp. 194, 307, 451
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: The Museum, 1991.
page_number
p. 72.
citation
Weingrod, Carmi, "Using Pen and Ink: Learning from Old Master Drawings, Part II, Ink Washes, Chiaroscuro, and Heightening with White," American Artist 57 (Feb. 1993): pp. 10-15.
page_number
p. 13
citation
Grieder, Terence. Artist and Audience. Madison, WI : Brown & Benchmark, 1996.
page_number
p. 91
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. <em>Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000.
page_number
Mentioned: cat. no. 61, p. 7, pp. 152-153; p. 292
citation
Goldner, George R. Review of "Master Drawings from The Cleveland Museum of Art," exh cat. by Diane De Grazia and Carter E. Foster, <em>Master Drawings</em> 40/2 (Summer 2002): 174-176.
page_number
p. 176.
citation
Dunbar, Burton L., et al. Sixteenth-Century Northern European Drawings. London, England: Harvey Miller, 2012.
page_number
no. 78, pp. 126-128.
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art. Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. 1967.
page_number
pl 134.
creditline
John L. Severance Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:31:41.356000
sourceId
126219
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - German
med
pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash and white gouache; framing lines in pen and black ink
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
8ce018239756360c