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Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist
by Jacob Duck
About the Artwork
The colorful, exotic garments worn by the woman at the right demonstrate Jacob Duck’s skill in painting luxurious surfaces: she is Salome, daughter of Herodias. According to the New Testament, Herodias bore a grudge against John the Baptist, who condemned her marriage to Herod, ruler of Galilee and Perea. At a celebration dinner, Salome so charmed Herod with her dancing that he offered her anything she desired—and Herodias convinced Salome to demand John the Baptist’s head. Rather than depicting the actual execution, Duck focused on the executioner’s muscled physique as he departs the scene, turning to look at the viewer after having presented Salome with John’s severed head.
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1975. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 3-March 7, 1976).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Jacob Duck (Dutch, c. 1600–1667)
- Date
- mid-1600s
- Medium
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- Framed: 92 x 76.5 x 4 cm (36 1/4 x 30 1/8 x 1 9/16 in.); Unframed: 71 x 54.6 cm (27 15/16 x 21 1/2 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin
- Accession no.
- 1975.79
Provenance
(F. Muller, Amsterdam, sale H. I. A Raedt van Oldenbarnevelt et al., November 6 ff., 1900, no. 339 [fl. 280, to Valk]) Victor de Stuers (1858-1916, The Hague and Kasteel Wiersse, Vorden, The Netherlands); by descent to his daughter, Alice Jacqueline Hortense Julie Aurelie de Stuers (1895-1988), wife of W. E. Gatacre Mrs. W. E. Gatacre, Jonkvrouwe de Stuers, Kasteel Wiersse, Vorden, Holland (Christie’s, London, sale Mrs. W. E. Gatacre-Jonkvrouwe de Stuers, November 26, 1965, no. 42 [as by Hendrik Gerritsz Pot; 600 Gns., to Sokolow]) (Alan Jacobs Gallery, London) (Sotheby’s, London, sale December 6, 1972, no. 54 [as by Jacob Duck]) (The Arcade Gallery, London) Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin, Cleveland, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1975.
More by Jacob Duck in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009350
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