Head of Saint John the Baptist in terracotta - Italy, second half 17th c.

The head of Saint John the Baptist has been venerated since the Middle Ages. Severed on the orders of King Herod, the prophet’s head was said to have been rediscovered in the fourth century. The development of legendary accounts and the multiplication of relics fostered the emergence of a distinct type of image, in which the Baptist’s head became an independent object of devotion.
According to the Gospels, John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod for condemning his union with Herodias, his brother’s former wife, accusing the couple of incest. During a banquet, captivated by the dance of his stepdaughter Salome, the king promised to grant her any wish. At her mother’s urging, offended by the Baptist’s reproaches, Salome asked for the prophet’s head, which was immediately brought to her on a platter.
From the thirteenth century onward, the head of Saint John the Baptist on a platter became an autonomous sculptural motif. Both disturbing and fascinating, it was venerated across Northern and Eastern Europe until the late Middle Ages, before enjoying renewed prominence during the Renaissance and the Baroque period, particularly in Italy.
Our terracotta exemplifies this tradition with striking power. The decapitation has just occurred: the Baptist’s face is frozen in an expression of agony and horror. His eyes remain open, his brow is furrowed, and his mouth gapes, revealing a fallen tongue that underscores the brutal immediacy of the scene. The aesthetic dimension of the work finds fulfillment in the elegant flow of his hair, once spreading fluidly across the platter’s surface, mingled with blood.
In the second half of the seventeenth century, this motif continued to captivate both artists and the faithful. It embodied the spiritual and aesthetic tensions of the Baroque: the fascination with the martyred body, the taste for pathos, and the pursuit of an emotional intensity meant to stir faith. The severed head becomes a mirror of the soul, suspended between life and death, between matter and revelation.
Today, the platter has vanished. From this absence arises an even more arresting vision: the Baptist’s head seems to float in emptiness, emerging from the void like a mystical apparition. Freed from its narrative context, it becomes nothing but a frozen pain, a pure image of sacrifice and transcendence.

Thermoluminescence analysis report available upon request