Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Madrid)

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, c. 1609

Oil on canvas, 116 × 140 cm

Galería de las Colecciones Reales, Madrid

Room VII · Sicily and the Last Journey (1608–1610)

Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Madrid), Caravaggio, c. 1609 — Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

The executioner looks down at the freshly severed head, and triumph turns into a meditation on death. According to the biographer Bellori, Caravaggio sent a Salome to Grand Master Wignacourt to win back his favour after his expulsion from the Order: this may be the one.