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The Feast of Herod (recto)
About the Artwork
Peter Paul Rubens had a large studio in Antwerp and used drawing to prepare for large paintings as well as to direct the many pupils who assisted him. Striking in its immediacy, the drawing on the recto of this sheet of paper is a preparatory study for the Feast of Herod painting now at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Herod, wearing a large cap and wrapped in a mantle, shrinks back in horror as Salome uncovers a charger that holds the head of Saint John the Baptist. Smiling, Herodias grabs the platter with her left hand and, in a chilling detail, gestures toward the charger with a fork. Rubens wrote what is usually interpreted as “Herodias somewhat higher” at the top of the sheet. The verso of the sheet depicts a sketch for another story featuring a change of fortune at the hands of a vengeful woman, Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus. Rubens made two paintings of the subject (now in Paris and Boston). A rare theme, the story tells of Queen Tomyris who, avenging the death of her son in battle, collects the head of his murderer Cyrus in a bag of human blood. Tomyris is shown seated under a canopy holding a scepter, while the servants before her handle Cyrus’s head. Rubens wrote “plus spatij” (more space) in the center of the sheet.
Inscriptions
by artist, upper center, in brown ink: de Herodias [wat hooger? (or: "meden hoofte," "wat hoegte," or "wat hogher")]; by artist, lower right, in brown ink: den[or: deze] stoel te [cort?].
Provenance
Unidentified collector (Lugt 622, verso, lower right, in black ink, probably Austrian collection c. 1800); English private collection (According to Burchard and d'Hulst, Antwerp, 1956); [Herbert N. Bier]. Purchased by the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1954.
Exhibition history
Drawings & Oil Sketches by P.P. Rubens from American Collections.. Fogg Art Museum/Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (organizer) (January 14-February 29, 1956); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (March 20-April 28, 1956); Rubenshuis, Antwerpen, Belgium (September 2-16, 1956). Tekeningen van P.P. Rubens. Rubenshuis, Antwerpen, Belgium (June 16-September 25, 1956). Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 1-March 24, 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). Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980). Baroque Imagery. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6, 1984-January 6, 1985). Flemish Drawings in the Age of Rubens: Selected Works from American Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 4-February 20, 1994). 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). Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640): The Drawings. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (January 18-April 3, 2005). 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).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640)
- Date
- c. 1637–38
- Medium
- pen and brown ink, with black and red chalk, touched with white gouache
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 27.2 x 47.2 cm (10 11/16 x 18 9/16 in.); Secondary Support: 27.6 x 47.3 cm (10 7/8 x 18 5/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds
- Accession no.
- 1954.2.a
More by Peter Paul Rubens in museum collections
The Feast of Herod (recto); Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus (verso)
Peter Paul Rubensc. 1637–38 · Drawing
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-00010980
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