“Salome with the head of Saint John the Baptist” by Andrea Solario
My painting of choice is “Salome with the head of Saint John the Baptist”, by Italian painter Andrea Solario. It is an oil-on-wood painting, which the author created around 1507 in the Cardinal Georges d’Amroise castle in Milan. This high-renaissance painting depicts a scene from the biblical story of Salome, where the titular character receives the severed head of St. John the Baptist, which she got as a gift from her step father.
The image depicts a woman, the biblical princess Salome, holding a silver plate. The woman has fair, clear skin, is dressed in royal attire and adorned with many jewels and gold trinkets. The plate she is holding up rests under the severed, still bleeding head of an unruly looking man, who we know from the title is St. John the Baptist. The head’s skin has turned a sickly yellow color, and it is being held up by a disembodied hand, possibly that of the executioner.
This painting is a depiction of martyrdom of the innocent and holy, as well as a critique of selfish desires, personified by Salome.
A strong theme within this piece is the severity of Salome’s fault in the death of St. John. It shows how greatly the whims of powerful people can impact the lives of the oppressed. Interestingly, the painting presents Salome as the only one to blame for the saint’s death – not the king who ordered his death, not the executioner who severed his neck, but the young girl, whose petty caprice led to the killing of an innocent man. She is the only one in focus, with the executioner only being present through a hand alone, making Salome seem as the main one at fault. Her soft expression, almost content at what she is witnessing, solidifies her as a detached and unsympathetic person.
In my remake, I want to emphasize the harmful impacts of vanity and pettiness. I want to maintain the aspect of fault and causality in this painting, by placing myself as both Salome and St.John. Staging myself as both its perpetrator and victim, I want to emphasize how normalized vanity and preying upon insecurity is within the queer community, harming both those affected and those who indulge in it. I do want to include themes of performing femininity as part of the self-sabotage, as it is something relevant to me as a queer person. This can be done by swapping the rich period wear of Salome for modern feminine clothing.
I found a pattern titled “Master Crane”, on the home wallpaper site “Lust Home”. I love the floral motifs within it for the aesthetics, but my main motivation for this choice is the inclusion of birds as an element of the pattern. Cranes specifically connote beauty and grace, which will work very well with the “performance of femininity” aspect of my drawing. They are also migratory birds, which adds a layer of extra complexity to the piece, giving a nod to my experience as an international student.
