The Dance at the Court of Herod

c. 1500
(German, c. 1440–1503)
Image: 21.5 x 31.5 cm (8 7/16 x 12 3/8 in.); Sheet: 21.5 x 31.5 cm (8 7/16 x 12 3/8 in.)
Catalogue raisonné: B VI.206.9; Lehrs IX.297.367; Hollstein XXIV.244.367; TIB 6
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Location: not on view

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Description

In this imaginative composition, Meckenem combines John the Baptist’s beheading with a courtly promenade. The religious narrative’s gruesome episodes occur in the background, where Salome collects the saint’s severed head on a platter and then presents it at Herod’s banquet table. Salome appears a third time in the foreground, where she dances with a lusty suitor who grabs her waist instead of politely holding her hand.
The Dance at the Court of Herod

The Dance at the Court of Herod

c. 1500

Israhel van Meckenem

(German, c. 1440–1503)
Germany, 15th century

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