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Salome Bearing the Head of St. John the Baptist (Painting)
Artist/Maker: Unknown copyist, after c. 1631 original by Guido Reni (1575-1642)
Created: after 1692
Origin/Purchase: Europe
Materials: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 143.5 × 102.9 (56 1/2 × 40 1/2 in.)
Location: Parlor
Provenance: Purchased by Thomas Jefferson in 1785 at an auction of the collection of St. Severin in Paris; by descent to Ellen and Joseph Coolidge; by descent to Harold Jefferson Coolidge; by gift to Thomas Jefferson Foundation in 1939
Accession Number: 1939-5
Historical Notes: A three-quarter length portrait of Salome (identified by Jefferson as Herodias) holding the head of John the Baptist on a large platter. She faces frontally with her head inclined to the right, and she wears rich, oriental robes of blue and gold. On her head is a large white turban with gold trim. The hat and the bodice of her robe are bejeweled, and she wears large pearl earrings. The bearded head of the Baptist is held before her; it is seen frontally.
- 1. Jefferson's Catalogue of Paintings, The Thomas Jefferson Papers, Accession #2958-b, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library. For a transcription of Jefferson's catalogue, see Seymour Howard, "Thomas Jefferson's Art Gallery for Monticello," The Art Bulletin 59, no. 4 (1977): 583-600.