The Beheading of St John the Baptist (Caravaggio)

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The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
La decapitacion de San Juan Bautista, por Caravaggio.jpg
Artist Caravaggio
Year1608
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions370 cm× 520 cm(150 in× 200 in)
Location St. John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist is an oil painting by the Italian artist Caravaggio. Measuring 3.7 m by 5.2 m, it depicts the execution of John the Baptist. It is located in the Oratory of St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta, Malta.

Contents

According to Andrea Pomella in Caravaggio: An Artist through Images (2005), the work is widely considered to be Caravaggio's masterpiece as well as "one of the most important works in Western painting." [1] Jonathan Jones has described The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist as one of the ten greatest works of art of all time: "Death and human cruelty are laid bare by this masterpiece, as its scale and shadow daunt and possess the mind." [2]

Composition

The painting, in oil on canvas, is 12 ft (3.7 m) by 17 ft (5.2 m) [3] and prominent are the vivid red and warm yellow colours, common to the Baroque period with the use of chiaroscuro. [4] The image depicts the execution of John the Baptist while nearby a servant girl stands with a golden platter to receive his head. Another woman, who has been identified as Herodias or simply a bystander who realizes that the execution is wrong, [5] [6] stands by in shock while a jailer issues instructions and the executioner draws his dagger to finish the beheading. The scene, popular with Italian artists in general and with Caravaggio himself, is not directly inspired by the Bible, but rather by the tale as related in the Golden Legend . [7]

It is the only work by Caravaggio to bear the artist's signature, which he placed in red blood spilling from the Baptist's cut throat. [8] There is considerable empty space in the image, but because the canvas is quite large the figures are approximately life-sized. [9]

Caravaggio likely drew the background for his work from his memories of time in prison in Rome or research into the prison of the Knights of Malta where he will - ironically - be detained after he completed this work.

History

Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, Caravaggio (London) Salome with the Head of John the Baptist-Caravaggio (1610).jpg
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, Caravaggio (London)

Completed in 1608 in Malta, the painting had been commissioned by the Knights of Malta as an altarpiece; [1] [10] it was the largest altarpiece which Caravaggio would ever paint. [11] It still hangs in St. John's Co-Cathedral, for which it was commissioned and where Caravaggio himself was inducted and briefly served as a knight. [8] [11] Caravaggio's service to the Order was brief and troubled, however, as he was soon a fugitive from justice, having escaped while imprisoned for an unrecorded crime. [6] When Caravaggio was defrocked in absentia as a "foul and rotten member" by the Order about six months after his induction, the ceremony took place in the Oratory, before this very painting. [6] [12]

Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, Caravaggio (Madrid) CaravaggioSalomeMadrid.jpg
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, Caravaggio (Madrid)

Caravaggio did several pieces depicting the moments after the event depicted here. One of these is on display in London's National Gallery; the other, in the Royal Palace of Madrid. It is believed that one of these may be the image that Caravaggio was said to have sent in an effort to appease Alof de Wignacourt, Grand Master of the Knights who expelled Caravaggio, but this is not certainly known. [13]

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist has been badly damaged, [14] though it did receive some restoration in the 1950s prior to a notable exhibition in Rome in 1955–56, which brought the work considerable attention. [15] It was during the restoration that Caravaggio's signature in the blood became visible to modern viewers. [16] The signature is a matter of some dispute. The work is signed f. Michelang.o (the f to indicate his brotherhood in the order), [17] but it is popularly claimed that Caravaggio signed "I, Caravaggio, did this" in confession of some crime—perhaps connected to the 1606 death of Ranuccio Tomassoni at Caravaggio's hands, which had caused the painter to flee Rome. [18] [19] [20]

In the summer of 2023, the windows in the oratory of the decollato were permanently shuttered and blocked off natural light. This decision caused a public outcry amongst art historians, Caravaggio scholars and Maltese citizens which was ignored by authorities. [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caravaggio</span> Italian painter (1571–1610)

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of his life, he moved between Naples, Malta, and Sicily until his death. His paintings have been characterized by art critics as combining a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, which had a formative influence on Baroque painting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint John's Co-Cathedral</span> Church in Valletta, Malta

St John's Co-Cathedral is a Roman Catholic co-cathedral in Valletta, Malta, dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. It was built by the Order of St. John between 1573 and 1578, having been commissioned by Grand Master Jean de la Cassière as the Conventual Church of Saint John.

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<i>Salome with the Head of John the Baptist</i> (Caravaggio, London) Painting by Caravaggio

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<i>Salome with the Head of John the Baptist</i> (Caravaggio, Madrid) Painting by Caravaggio

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beheading of John the Baptist</span> Biblical event and Christian holy day

The beheading of John the Baptist, also known as the decollation of Saint John the Baptist or the beheading of the Forerunner, is a biblical event commemorated as a holy day by various Christian churches. According to the New Testament, Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee under the Roman Empire, had imprisoned John the Baptist because he had publicly reproved Herod for divorcing his first wife and unlawfully taking his sister-in-law as his second wife Herodias. He then ordered him to be killed by beheading.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mattia Preti</span> Italian painter (1613–1699)

Mattia Preti was an Italian Baroque artist who worked in Italy and Malta. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Saint John.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonello Spada</span> Italian painter

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<i>Saint Jerome Writing</i> Painting by Caravaggio

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Feast of Herod</span>

The Feast of Herod refers to the episode in the Gospels following the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, when Salome presents his head to her parents. The account in the Book of Mark describes Herod Antipas holding a banquet on his birthday for his high officials and military commanders, and leading men of Galilee. At this banquet, Herod's daughter dances before Herod, who is pleased and offers her anything she asks for in return. The girl asks her mother what she should request, and she is told to demand the head of John the Baptist. Reluctantly, Herod orders the beheading of John, and John's head is delivered to her, at her request, "on a platter."(Mark 6:17–29)

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Alessio Erardi (1669–1727) was a Maltese painter. He was the son of the artist Stefano Erardi and his wife Caterina Buttigieg. He initially studied art with his father, and eventually spent five and a half years in Rome between 1695 and 1701. His style is regarded as an early form of Baroque, and he was influenced by both his father and Mattia Preti.

<i>Judith and Holofernes</i> (Preti) Painting by Mattia Preti

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References

  1. 1 2 Pomella, Andrea (2005). Caravaggio: an artist through images. ATS Italia Editrice. p. 106. ISBN   978-88-88536-62-0.
  2. ↑ Jones, Jonathan (21 March 2014). "The 10 greatest works of art ever". The Guardian .
  3. ↑ Partel, Francis J. (2011). The Chess Players, a Novel of the Cold War at Sea. United States Navy Log LLC. p. 287. ISBN   9780615414515.
  4. ↑ Sammut, E. (1949). "Caravaggio in Malta" (PDF). Scientia. 15 (2): 88. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 October 2018. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  5. ↑ Harris, Ann Sutherland (2005). Seventeenth-century art & architecture. Laurence King Publishing. p. 48. ISBN   978-1-85669-415-5.
  6. 1 2 3 Gaul, Simon (2007). Malta Gozo & Comino, 4th. New Holland Publishers. p. 109. ISBN   978-1-86011-365-9.[ permanent dead link ]
  7. ↑ Hibbard, Howard (1983). The Caravaggio: Reflections on Political Change and the Clinton Administration. Harper & Row. p. 228. ISBN   978-0-06-430128-2.[ permanent dead link ]
  8. 1 2 Rowland, Ingrid Drake (2005). From heaven to Arcadia: the sacred and the profane in the Renaissance. New York Review of Books. p. 163. ISBN   978-1-59017-123-3.
  9. ↑ Hibbard (1985), 232.
  10. ↑ Varriano (2006), pp. 74, 116.
  11. 1 2 Patrick, James (2007). Renaissance and Reformation. Marshall Cavendish. p. 194. ISBN   978-0-7614-7651-1.
  12. ↑ Warwick, Genevieve (2006). Caravaggio: Realism, Rebellion, Reception. University of Delaware Press. p. 30. ISBN   978-0-87413-936-5.
  13. ↑ Hibbard (1985), 249.
  14. ↑ Hagen, Rose-Marie; Rainer Hagen (2002). What great paintings say. Taschen. p. 216. ISBN   978-3-8228-2100-8.
  15. ↑ Hibbard (1985), p. 230.
  16. ↑ Hammill, Graham L. (2002). Sexuality and Form: Caravaggio, Marlowe, and Bacon. University of Chicago Press. p. 95. ISBN   978-0-226-31519-5.
  17. ↑ Warwick (2006), p. 15.
  18. ↑ Pencak, William (October 2002). The films of Derek Jarman. McFarland. p. 70. ISBN   978-0-7864-1430-7.
  19. ↑ Peachment, Christopher (2003). Caravaggio. Macmillan. p. 168. ISBN   978-0-312-31448-4.
  20. ↑ Jackson, Earl (1995). Strategies of deviance: studies in gay male representation. Indiana University Press. p. 81. ISBN   978-0-253-33115-1.
  21. ↑ Simeone, Mario Francesco (6 July 2023). "Lavori al Museo della Concattedrale di San Giovanni, a rischio la luce di Caravaggio". ExibArt .Borg, Neville (22 June 2023). "28 international Caravaggio experts protest St John's Co-Cathedral works". Times of Malta . "Vittorio Sgarbi horrified by St John's Co-Cathedral extension works". Times of Malta . 25 November 2023. "L'Appello di Keith Sciberras a tutela della "Decollazione del Battista" capolavoro di Caravaggio a La Valletta". AboutArtOnline . 2023.

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