{
"data": {
"id": 130707,
"accession_number": "1953.424",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Head of Saint John the Baptist, c. 1550\u20131650. Spain or Northern Italy, mid 16th - mid 17th century. Oil on canvas; framed: 80.6 x 104.8 x 7.6 cm (31 3/4 x 41 1/4 x 3 in.); unframed: 50 x 75.2 cm (19 11/16 x 29 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund, 1953.424",
"current_location": "118 Italian Renaissance",
"title": "Head of Saint John the Baptist",
"creation_date": "c. 1550\u20131650",
"creation_date_earliest": 1550,
"creation_date_latest": 1650,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Spain or Northern Italy, mid 16th - mid 17th century"
],
"technique": "oil on canvas",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "P - Italian 16th & 17th Century",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 80.6 x 104.8 x 7.6 cm (31 3/4 x 41 1/4 x 3 in.); Unframed: 50 x 75.2 cm (19 11/16 x 29 5/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 0.806,
"width": 1.048,
"depth": 0.076
},
"unframed": {
"height": 0.5,
"width": 0.752
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Inscription of ribbon entwining the reed cross: ECCE AGNUS DEI",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 300859,
"title": "The Venetian Tradition",
"description": "The Venetian Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 8, 1956-January 1, 1957).",
"opening_date": "1956-11-08T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Vienna, Sezesion (second exhibition by the Verein der Museumfreunde), 1924: \"Meisterwerker Italienischer Renaissance Kunst aus Privtbesitz,\" cat. no. 112.",
"opening_date": "1924-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Venice, Palazo P\u00e9saro, 1935: \"Mostra di Tiziano,\" cat. no. 63 (catalogue by Gino Fogliari).",
"opening_date": "1935-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "CMA, 1956: \"The Venetian Tradition,\" cat. no. 22, pl. IX. (Catalogue by Henry S Francis).",
"opening_date": "1956-01-01T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "[Alessandro Brass, Venice], sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1953.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The scroll wrapped around the cross next to John the Baptist's head reads Ecce Agnus Dei, meaning \"Behold the Lamb of God.\"",
"description": "Salome\u2019s dancing so pleased her stepfather Herod that he offered her anything she wanted. Her mother advised Salome to demand John the Baptist\u2019s head, which Salome presented to her family in an elaborate dish. Here, the head stands on its own, with a startlingly tangible presence. Despite its biblical source, this work was meant for a domestic setting, whose owner would have admired the artful presentation of a shocking story. Acquired in 1953 as the work of the Venetian Renaissance artist Titian, the painting soon lost this attribution because it lacks Titian\u2019s distinctive brushwork. After decades of research, the museum has yet to identify a clear author. Recently, several scholars have argued persuasively for a Spanish artist, partly because the subject is common in Spanish art in the early 1600s. Yet the color scheme and the handling of paint in the face recalls the work of earlier artists inspired by Titian in northern Italy.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60516403"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1953.424-head-of-saint-john-t"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Francis, Henry. \"Portraits by Lorenzo Lotto.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 44, no. 3 (March 1957): 43-46.
Attributed to Lorenzo Lotto",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 42; Mentioned: p. 45",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25142195"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 97",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n119/mode/2up"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 97",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n121"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 111",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n131"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 442",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Brettell, Richard R. On Modern Beauty: Three Paintings by Manet, Gauguin, and Cezanne. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2019.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: P. 56, no. 40",
"url": null
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1953.424",
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"creditline": "Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 130707,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1953-11-05T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1550,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1550\u20131650",
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"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
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"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:05:15.486000"
}
}