id: 126219 accession number: 1948.440 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1948.440 updated: 2022-09-22 09:40:17.396000 Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist, c. 1517. Albrecht Altdorfer (German, c. 1480–1538). Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash and white gouache; framing lines in pen and black ink; sheet: 19.1 x 12.6 cm (7 1/2 x 4 15/16 in.); secondary support: 20 x 13 cm (7 7/8 x 5 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1948.440 title: Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1517 creation date earliest: 1512 creation date latest: 1522 current location: creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: Germany, 16th century technique: pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash and white gouache; framing lines in pen and black ink department: Drawings collection: DR - German type: Drawing find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Albrecht Altdorfer (German, c. 1480–1538) - artist --- measurements: Sheet: 19.1 x 12.6 cm (7 1/2 x 4 15/16 in.); Secondary Support: 20 x 13 cm (7 7/8 x 5 1/8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: description: laid paper prepared with dark brown ground, laid down on cream(3) laid paper; window mount of cream(3) laid paper mounted to recto watermarks: inscriptions: inscription: lower right, in brown ink: 17; on paper mounted to recto, lower right, in brown ink: 40; verso of secondary support, center, in graphite: Liechtenstein translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Original Prints and Drawings by Masters of Berlin Museum Paintings opening date: 1949-01-11T05:00:00 Original Prints and Drawings by Masters of Berlin Museum Paintings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-March 27, 1949). title: Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition opening date: 1958-03-03T05:00:00 Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959). title: Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries opening date: 1960-05-18T04:00:00 Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 18-October 11, 1960). title: Drawings opening date: 1963-01-11T05:00:00 Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963). title: Old Master Drawings opening date: 1964-03-10T05:00:00 Old Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-30, 1964). title: Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection opening date: 1965-05-06T04:00:00 Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965). title: Old Master Prints and Drawings opening date: 1966-07-29T04:00:00 Old Master Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 29, 1966-April 1, 1967). title: Drawings from the Museum Collection opening date: 1967-06-09T04:00:00 Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 9, 1967-January 1, 1968). title: Drawings opening date: 1968-06-11T04:00:00 Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 11-October 21, 1968). title: Prints and Drawings of the Danube School opening date: 1969-10-09T04:00:00 Prints and Drawings of the Danube School. Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT (organizer) (October 9-November 16, 1969); Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (December 11, 1969-January 25, 1970); Saint Louis Art Museum (February 10-March 24, 1970). title: Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 1982-11-16T05:00:00 Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983). title: National Schools of Style opening date: 1983-06-14T04:00:00 National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983). title: Albrecht Dürer and His Influence opening date: 1991-01-16T05:00:00 Albrecht Dürer and His Influence. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 16-March 10, 1991). title: The German Tradition opening date: 1993-04-27T04:00:00 The German Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-June 27, 1993). title: Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2000-08-27T00:00:00 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). title: Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art opening date: 2014-03-09T00:00:00 Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Princes of Liechtenstein, Vienna (no stamp; according to inscription on secondary support). date: ?-1948 footnotes: citations: with F. A. Drey, London. date: 1948 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio. date: 1948- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The artist colored the paper on this drawing a dark brown in order to emphasize the highlights and shadows created with inks. digital description: Salome's story is described in the biblical Gospels of Mark and Matthew. After dancing for King Herod of Galilee, her new stepfather, she was granted any wish she desired. Influenced by her mother, Herodias, she asked that John the Baptist--who was then imprisoned for condemning Herod and Herodias' marriage--be executed. Here, Salome enacts the most gruesome part of the story, presenting the prophet's head on a platter. In the Renaissance, the story was believed to presage the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and the presentation of the Eucharist during Catholic liturgy. Altdorfer's drawing emphasizes Salome's pride--a dangerous sin--through her elaborate garments, billowing, plumed headdress, and flowing long hair. He articulated these details using black ink highlighted with white gouache on paper darkened with brown wash and a finely pointed pen. wall description: The majority of Altdorfer’s surviving drawings are chiaroscuro, made with pen and black or dark-brown ink, highlighted with white gouache applied with a brush, on dark-colored paper. The technique was used widely among northern artists in the early 16th century. Here, finely painted white brushstrokes define Salome’s elaborate garments and billowing, plumed headdress, emphasizing the figure’s emergence from a deeply shadowed background. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS The Cleveland Museum of Art, Henry S. Francis. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/June, 1950. No. 6/pt 1. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978: 115-118. page number: p. 117-118. url: Winzinger, Franz, and Albrecht Altdorfer. Albrecht Altdorfer Zeichnungen. München: R. Piper & Co, 1952. page number: no. 64, pp. 82-83. url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 581 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n109 Oettinger, Karl. Altdorfer-Studien. [On Albrecht and Erhard Altdorfer. With Reproductions]. Nurnberg: Verlag Hans Carl, 1959. page number: p. 111 url: Oettinger, Karl, "Ein Altdorfer-Schuler: Der Zeichner der Pariser Landsknechte," in Möhle, Hans. Festschrift Friedrich Winkler. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1959: pp. 201-212. page number: pp. 210-212 url: Moskowitz, Ira, and Victoria Thorson. Great Drawings of All Time. New York: Shorewood Publishers, 1962. page number: no. 423 url: Stange, Alfred. Malerei der Donauschule. München: Bruckmann, 1964. page number: p. 91 url: 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. 112 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n136 Pfeiffer, Wolfgang, "Die Zeichnungen Michael Osterndorfers am Kirchenmodell der Schonen Maria zu Regensburg," Pantheon. XXIV (1966): pp. 378-387. page number: p. 384, url: 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. 112 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n136 Talbot, Charles W., and Alan Shestack. Prints and Drawings of the Danube School; An Exhibition of South German and Austrian Graphic Art of 1500 to 1560. New Haven: Printed by the Carl Purington Rollins Printing-Office of the Yale University Press, 1969. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 37, pp. 44-45 url: 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. 131 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n151 Meder, Joseph, and Winslow Ames. The Mastery of Drawing. 2 vols. New York, N.Y.: Abaris Books, 1978. page number: I, pp. 128, 435, II, p. 74 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, Miller, Michael. Drawing, a Glossary of Materials: Selections from the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1987. page number: p. 9 url: Merkel, Kerstin. Salome: Ikonographie im Wandel. Frankfurt am Main: P. Lang, 1990. page number: pp. 194, 307, 451 url: Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: The Museum, 1991. page number: p. 72. url: Weingrod, Carmi, "Using Pen and Ink: Learning from Old Master Drawings, Part II, Ink Washes, Chiaroscuro, and Heightening with White," American Artist 57 (Feb. 1993): pp. 10-15. page number: p. 13 url: Grieder, Terence. Artist and Audience. Madison, WI : Brown & Benchmark, 1996. page number: p. 91 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. page number: Mentioned: cat. no. 61, p. 7, pp. 152-153; p. 292 url: Goldner, George R. Review of "Master Drawings from The Cleveland Museum of Art," exh cat. by Diane De Grazia and Carter E. Foster, Master Drawings 40/2 (Summer 2002): 174-176. page number: p. 176. url: Dunbar, Burton L., et al. Sixteenth-Century Northern European Drawings. London, England: Harvey Miller, 2012. page number: no. 78, pp. 126-128. url: Cleveland Museum of Art. Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. 1967. page number: pl 134. url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1948.440/1948.440_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1948.440/1948.440_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1948.440/1948.440_full.tif