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Be-Heading of John the Baptist

The story of the beheading of john the Baptist is a very common biblical story which teaches about incest, stealing and sin. John the Baptist according to the gospels is stated to have had a lot of influence on the people and that he was in fact the Second Elijah. With this he was a prophet and the work of a prophet was to state clearly what was wrong and evil in the society for individuals to get rid of it. He admonished King Herod for leaving his wife and taking his niece as his second wife. This was considered a big sin and therefore john the Baptist wanted to do his part so that even if king hero was to be judged it will not be up to the prophet to be asked about why the kind did the wrong thing.

With being reproved, the kind got angry and locked john the Baptist. During a feast a girl danced very well and the king promised the girl to give her anything she would have asked for. However due to issues the mother of the daughter had with john the Baptist, she requested the daughter to request for the head of john the Baptist on a platter. Therefore King Herod brought what he was expected to do. Therefore the story of the beheading is a story which has many lessons and can be depicted in a certain ways by artists.

The major works of art in this subject are; The Beheading of St John the Baptist by Caravaggio and the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist by Giovanni di Paolo.

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio is the artists who prepared the work.

This painting was made between, 1571-161 by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It is an oil on canvas painting and measures 91.5 by 106.7 cm. Salome turns away from the head and this can be stated to be avoidance of seeing what has been done since it is too much for anyone to look at. The executioner who is holding the hair of the head of john the Baptist is very composed and detached. The old woman is a disengagement looker. The painting is like a movie close-up. The painting focuses on the main ideas and removes all the others for example the theme is black to display sadness, anger or dull mood while at the same time preventing anything else in the periphery from being seen since the most important thing is the three people who are holding the platter on which the head is placed and the head itself. Salome feels bad about it and she wishes that could not have happened. The woman is contemplating and the executioner is also sympathizing with the families lost.

It is a religious painting and it is located in UK. It uses Baroque and Tenebrism painting styles and it is in the public domain. The art has a greater power and it is dark because there is no possibility of coming out of it or redemption. Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggi’s main stylistic movement connection and relation is that he was a baroque kind of artist.

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

Artist: Giovanni di Paolo

This art is made by Artist named as Caravaggio Medium. It is Oil painting on canvas type of art and it is currently located in St. John’s Co-Cathedral, Valletta. This work is written along other narrative series of twelve panels written by the same author. The manner in which the scenes are selected, the architecture, light delicate manner of presentation makes the art ones of the best kind of arts. The medium used for this kind of writing is Tempera on panel. This is a type of gothic decorative painting since it was what the painter was much into. He also did art work in the field of scientific naturalism and classical humanism.

These two works of art are different in that both are written by different painters and artists who have their own way of making sure that they present their ideas in the best manner possible. They are also different in that, even though talking about the same thing the stages are different. In the first piece of art the beheading has already taken place while in the second one the be-heading is taking place at that particular time.

Works Cited

Shedd, Nathan L. The Beheading of John the Baptist in the First Three Centuries: Memory, Violence, and Reception. Diss. St Mary’s University/Liverpool Hope University, 2019.

Shedd, Nathan L. The Beheading of John the Baptist in the First Three Centuries: Memory, Violence, and Reception. Diss. St Mary’s University/Liverpool Hope University, 2019.