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Dec 19, 2013

Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist

c. 1517

Albrecht Altdorfer

(German, c. 1480–1538)

Germany, 16th century

Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash and white gouache; framing lines in pen and black ink

Support: Laid paper prepared with dark brown ground, laid down on cream(3) laid paper; window mount of cream(3) laid paper mounted to recto

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.)

John L. Severance Fund 1948.440

Location

not on view

Did you know?

The artist colored the paper on this drawing a dark brown in order to emphasize the highlights and shadows created with inks.

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.

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

Provenance

?-1948

Princes of Liechtenstein, Vienna (no stamp; according to inscription on secondary support).

1948

with F. A. Drey, London.

1948-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio.

Citations

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Henry S. Francis. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/June, 1950. No. 6/pt 1. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978: 115-118. p. 117-118.

Winzinger, Franz, and Albrecht Altdorfer. Albrecht Altdorfer Zeichnungen. München: R. Piper & Co, 1952. no. 64, pp. 82-83.

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 581 archive.org

Oettinger, Karl. Altdorfer-Studien. [On Albrecht and Erhard Altdorfer. With Reproductions]. Nurnberg: Verlag Hans Carl, 1959. p. 111

Oettinger, Karl, "Ein Altdorfer-Schuler: Der Zeichner der Pariser Landsknechte," in Möhle, Hans. Festschrift Friedrich Winkler. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1959: pp. 201-212. pp. 210-212

Moskowitz, Ira, and Victoria Thorson. Great Drawings of All Time. New York: Shorewood Publishers, 1962. no. 423

Stange, Alfred. Malerei der Donauschule. München: Bruckmann, 1964. p. 91

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 112 archive.org

Pfeiffer, Wolfgang, "Die Zeichnungen Michael Osterndorfers am Kirchenmodell der Schonen Maria zu Regensburg," Pantheon. XXIV (1966): pp. 378-387. p. 384,

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 112 archive.org

Talbot, Charles W., and Alan Shestack. Prints and Drawings of the Danube School; An Exhibition of South German and Austrian Graphic Art of 1500 to 1560. New Haven: Printed by the Carl Purington Rollins Printing-Office of the Yale University Press, 1969. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 37, pp. 44-45

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 131 archive.org

Meder, Joseph, and Winslow Ames. The Mastery of Drawing. 2 vols. New York, N.Y.: Abaris Books, 1978. I, pp. 128, 435, II, p. 74

Cleveland Museum of Art, Miller, Michael. Drawing, a Glossary of Materials: Selections from the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1987. p. 9

Merkel, Kerstin. Salome: Ikonographie im Wandel. Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang, 1990. pp. 194, 307, 451

Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: The Museum, 1991. p. 72.

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. p. 13

Grieder, Terence. Artist and Audience. Madison, WI : Brown & Benchmark, 1996. p. 91

Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: cat. no. 61, p. 7, pp. 152-153; p. 292

Goldner, George R. Review of "Master Drawings from The Cleveland Museum of Art," exh cat. by Diane De Grazia and Carter E. Foster, Master Drawings 40/2 (Summer 2002): 174-176. p. 176.

Dunbar, Burton L., et al. Sixteenth-Century Northern European Drawings. London, England: Harvey Miller, 2012. no. 78, pp. 126-128.

Cleveland Museum of Art. Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. 1967. pl 134.

Exhibition history

Original Prints and Drawings by Masters of Berlin Museum Paintings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-March 27, 1949).

German Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 11-December 18, 1955).

Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).

Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 18-October 11, 1960).

Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963).

Old Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-31, 1964).

Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965).

Old Master Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 29, 1966-February 28, 1967).

Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 9, 1967-January 1, 1968).

Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 11-October 21, 1968).

Prints and Drawings of the Danube School. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (organizer) (October 9-November 16, 1969); Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (December 11, 1969-January 25, 1970); Saint Louis Art Museum (February 10-March 24, 1970).

Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983).

National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983).

Albrecht Dürer and His Influence. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 16-March 10, 1991).

The German Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-June 27, 1993).

Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).

Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1948.440|author=Albrecht Altdorfer|year=c. 1517|access-date=03 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist

Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist

Albrecht Altdorfer

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