{
"data": {
"id": 131583,
"accession_number": "1954.2",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Feast of Herod (recto); Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus (verso), c. 1637\u201338. Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577\u20131640). Pen and brown ink, with black and red chalk, touched with white gouache; sheet: 27.2 x 47.2 cm (10 11/16 x 18 9/16 in.); secondary support: 27.6 x 47.3 cm (10 7/8 x 18 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds, 1954.2",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Feast of Herod (recto); Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus (verso)",
"creation_date": "c. 1637\u201338",
"creation_date_earliest": 1637,
"creation_date_latest": 1638,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Flanders"
],
"technique": "pen and brown ink, with black and red chalk, touched with white gouache",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Drawings",
"collection": "DR - Flemish",
"type": "Drawing",
"measurements": "Sheet: 27.2 x 47.2 cm (10 11/16 x 18 9/16 in.); Secondary Support: 27.6 x 47.3 cm (10 7/8 x 18 5/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.272,
"height_inch": 10,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.6875,
"width": 0.472,
"width_inch": 18,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5625
},
"secondary support": {
"height": 0.276,
"height_inch": 10,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.875,
"width": 0.473,
"width_inch": 18,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.625
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "by artist, upper center, in brown ink: de Herodias [wat hooger? (or: \"meden hoofte,\" \"wat hoegte,\" or \"wat hogher\")]; by artist, lower right, in brown ink: den[or: deze] stoel te [cort?].\r\n",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 361634,
"title": "Drawings & Oil Sketches by P.P. Rubens from American Collections.",
"description": "Drawings & Oil Sketches by P.P. Rubens from American Collections.. Fogg Art Museum/Harvard University, Cambridge, MA (organizer) (January 14-February 29, 1956); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (March 20-April 28, 1956); Rubenshuis, Antwerpen, Belgium (September 2-16, 1956).",
"opening_date": "1956-01-14T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 361635,
"title": "Tekeningen van P.P. Rubens",
"description": "Tekeningen van P.P. Rubens. Rubenshuis, Antwerpen, Belgium (June 16-September 25, 1956).",
"opening_date": "1956-06-16T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301184,
"title": "Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition",
"description": "Department of Prints and Drawings Opening Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (March 3, 1958-October 11, 1959).",
"opening_date": "1958-03-03T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 301689,
"title": "Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries",
"description": "Drawings from the Museum Collection: 15th-17th Centuries. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 18-October 11, 1960).",
"opening_date": "1960-05-18T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304645,
"title": "Drawings",
"description": "Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 11-September 10, 1963).",
"opening_date": "1963-01-11T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 350002,
"title": "Old Master Drawings",
"description": "Old Master Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 10-31, 1964).",
"opening_date": "1964-03-10T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 350931,
"title": "Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands",
"description": "Drawings: France, Italy, Netherlands. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 1-March 24, 1965).",
"opening_date": "1965-01-01T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 350269,
"title": "Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection",
"description": "Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965).",
"opening_date": "1965-05-06T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 350752,
"title": "Old Master Prints and Drawings",
"description": "Old Master Prints and Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 29, 1966-February 28, 1967).",
"opening_date": "1966-07-29T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 351015,
"title": "Prints and Drawings from the Museum Collection",
"description": "Prints and Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 29-June 6, 1967).",
"opening_date": "1967-03-29T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 351065,
"title": "Drawings from the Museum Collection",
"description": "Drawings from the Museum Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 9, 1967-January 1, 1968).",
"opening_date": "1967-06-09T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 351191,
"title": "Drawings",
"description": "Drawings. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 11-October 21, 1968).",
"opening_date": "1968-06-11T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 304414,
"title": "Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism",
"description": "Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 19-March 23, 1980).",
"opening_date": "1980-02-19T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309575,
"title": "Seventeenth Century Netherlandish Graphics",
"description": "Seventeenth Century Netherlandish Graphics. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-August 1, 1982).",
"opening_date": "1982-04-27T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309584,
"title": "Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Northern European Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1982-January 9, 1983).",
"opening_date": "1982-11-16T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309655,
"title": "National Schools of Style",
"description": "National Schools of Style. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 14-September 18, 1983).",
"opening_date": "1983-06-14T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309864,
"title": "Baroque Imagery",
"description": "Baroque Imagery. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 6, 1984-January 6, 1985).",
"opening_date": "1984-11-06T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311561,
"title": "Flemish Drawings in the Age of Rubens: Selected Works from American Collections",
"description": "Flemish Drawings in the Age of Rubens: Selected Works from American Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 4-February 20, 1994).",
"opening_date": "1994-01-04T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 192019,
"title": "Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "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).",
"opening_date": "2000-08-27T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 205985,
"title": "Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640): The Drawings",
"description": "Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640): The Drawings. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (January 18-April 3, 2005).",
"opening_date": "2005-01-18T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 204986,
"title": "Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Treasures on Paper from the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 9-June 8, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2014-03-09T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Unidentified collector, probably Austria (Lugt 622)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "ca. 1800-1900",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "Private collection, England",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "ca. 1900-1953",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "with Herbert N. Bier, London",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1953",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1954-",
"sortorder": 4
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "The two stories that Rubens depicted on the front and back of this sheet of paper each feature a gruesome death, the result of revenge at the hands of a powerful woman.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Peter Paul Rubens had a large studio in Antwerp and used drawing to prepare for large paintings as well as to direct the many pupils who assisted him. Striking in its immediacy, the drawing on the recto of this sheet of paper is a preparatory study for the Feast of Herod painting now at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Herod, wearing a large cap and wrapped in a mantle, shrinks back in horror as Salome uncovers a charger that holds the head of Saint John the Baptist. Smiling, Herodias grabs the platter with her left hand and, in a chilling detail, gestures toward the charger with a fork. Rubens wrote what is usually interpreted as \u201cHerodias somewhat higher\u201d at the top of the sheet. The verso of the sheet depicts a sketch for another story featuring a change of fortune at the hands of a vengeful woman, Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus. Rubens made two paintings of the subject (now in Paris and Boston). A rare theme, the story tells of Queen Tomyris who, avenging the death of her son in battle, collects the head of his murderer Cyrus in a bag of human blood. Tomyris is shown seated under a canopy holding a scepter, while the servants before her handle Cyrus\u2019s head. Rubens wrote \u201cplus spatij\u201d (more space) in the center of the sheet.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80023036"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1954.2-the-feast-of-herod-r"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Johnson, Mark M. Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 29-32",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Francis, Henry. \"The Preliminary Pen and Ink Drawing for the 'Feast of Herod' nu Peter Paul Rubens.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 41, no. 6 (June 1954): 124-127.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 114, 127; Mentioned: p. 124",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141969"
},
{
"citation": "Burchard, Ludwig, \"Rubens' 'Feast of Herod' at Port Sunlight,\" Burlington Magazine Vol. XCV No 609 (December 1953):pp 383-387.",
"page_number": "p. 387",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Held, Julius S. \"Rubens' 'Feast of Herod'.\" The Burlington Magazine 96, no. 613 (1954): 122.",
"page_number": "p. 122",
"url": "www.jstor.org/stable/871368."
},
{
"citation": "Fogg Art Museum. Drawings & Oil Sketches by P.P. Rubens, from American Collections. Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; New York, NY: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1956.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 25-26, no. 26, pl. 26",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Burchard, Ludwig and Roger Adolf d' Hulst. Tekeningen van P.P. Rubens. Antwerpen: Uitgeverij Ontwikkeling, 1956.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 107-8, no. 131, pl. 59",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Held, Julius S., \"Drawings and Oil Sketches by Rubens from American Collections,\" Burlington Magazine XCVII/637 (April 1956): pp. 123-125.",
"page_number": "p. 124, fig 34 (verso)",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "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. 587, 588",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n110"
},
{
"citation": "Held, Julius S. Rubens: Selected Drawings. London: Phaidon Press, 1959.",
"page_number": "I:p. 124, no. 67, pl. 77",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Burchard, Ludwig, and Roger Adolf d' Hulst. Rubens Drawings. Brussels: Arcade Press, 1963.",
"page_number": "I:313-316, no. 196, 2:pl. 196r (rect), 196v (verso)",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Jaff\u00e9, Michael, \"Cleveland Museum of Art, The Figurative Arts of the West, ca. 1400-1800,\" Apollo LXXVIII (Dec. 1963): pp. 457-467.",
"page_number": "p. 466",
"url": null
},
{
"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. 119",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n143"
},
{
"citation": "Hofstede, Justus Muller. Review, \"L. Burchard and R.-A. d'Hulst: Rubens Drawings,\" Master Drawings Vol. IV No. 4 (1966): pp. 435-454.",
"page_number": "pp. 436, 454",
"url": null
},
{
"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. 119",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n143"
},
{
"citation": "Logan, Anne-Marie. \"\"Two Armored Soldiers Fighting\", a Late Drawing by Peter Paul Rubens.\" Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin 34, no. 1 (1972): 16-18.",
"page_number": "p.18",
"url": "www.jstor.org/stable/40482375."
},
{
"citation": "Logan, Anne-Marie. \"Rubens Exhibitions 1977.\" Master Drawings15, no. 4 (1977): 403-71.",
"page_number": "p. 407",
"url": "www.jstor.org/stable/1553403."
},
{
"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. 154",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n174"
},
{
"citation": "Thompson, Colin and Hugh Brigstocke. Shorter Catalogue. National Gallery of Scotland. 1978.",
"page_number": "p. 93 under no. 2193",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Berger, Robert W., \"Rubens's 'Queen Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus',\" MFA Bulletin Vol 77 (1979):PP. 4-35",
"page_number": "pp. 24-25",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Schloder, John E. Baroque Imagery. exh.cat. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1984.",
"page_number": "no. 17, pp. 43-44.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Logan, Anne-Marie S. Flemish Drawings in the Age of Rubens: Selected Works from American Collections. Wellesley, MA: Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, 1993.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 203-5, no. 58",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "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: P. 174-75, 294; Reproduced: P. 175, cat. no. 71",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Logan, Anne-Marie S., and Michiel Plomp. Peter Paul Rubens: The Drawings. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.",
"page_number": "no. 112, p. 300",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Jaff\u00e9, David, Elizabeth McGrath, et al. Rubens: a master in the making. London : National Gallery Company : Distributed by Yale University Press, \u00a92005.",
"page_number": "p. 31, fig. 22",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Kopecky, Veronika. Die Beischriften des Peter Paul Rubens. Uberlegungen zu handschriftlichen Vermerken auf Zeichnungen. Doctoral dissertation: Universitat Hamburg, 2008/2012",
"page_number": "pp. 10, 47-48, 86, no. 50",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bulckens, Koen, and Paul Huvenne. Rubens: The Ministry of Christ. London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2017.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 27, 81-83, 87, 166; reproduced: pp. 218-219, fig. 62 and 63",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Selected Works. Cleveland, [1967?]",
"page_number": "no. 163",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Korbei, Veronika, Nils B\u00fcttner, Corina Kleinert, and Elizabeth McGrath. Rubens. Drawings Unrelated to Known Compositions. Edited by Isabelle van Tichelen. London: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2025.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pl. 121",
"url": ""
}
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"id": 1251,
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:47:02.955000"
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}