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The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and the Feast of Herod — Fra Angelico
Prints up to 24×36 in

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist and the Feast of Herod

Fra Angelico (Italian, c. 1395–1455)
Date c. 1430
Collection Musée du Louvre, Paris
Subject Saints
Season Ordinary Time
Master 8,830 px
License Public domain
Attribution Musée du Louvre, Paris · RF 196

The original, as its museum records it

Artist Fra Angelico (Guido di Pietro, dit Fra Giovanni da Fiesole)
Date 2e quart du XVe siècle (1425 - 1450)
Medium bois (peuplier) — surface peinte coupée sur la gauche
Dimensions Hauteur : 0,195 m ; Largeur : 0,305 m
Holding Musée du Louvre, Paris · RF 196

Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.

The file this print is made from

Source La Décollation de saint Jean Baptiste et le Banquet d'Hérode - Fra Angelico - Musée du Louvre Peintures RF 196.jpg
Master 8,830 px on the long edge
Rights Public domain — the photograph as well as the painting

Sizes

sheet 20×16 in · image 20×12.9 in · archival margin · 442 dpi
sheet 24×18 in · image 24×15.5 in · archival margin · 368 dpi
sheet 36×24 in · image 36×23.2 in · archival margin · 245 dpi

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About this painting

A doorway splits the panel in two. Through it, a soldier carries the Baptist's head on a gold platter — behind him, in a low cell, the executioner's sword still raised, the blow not finished; ahead, a laid table.

Carved alone, head and platter became what Barbara Baert calls a "substitute liturgical object during the veneration of the Host." Herod draws one hand to his chest as the platter arrives — grieved, but bound by an oath sworn before his guests. Salome, mid-step: her dance bought the head.

One threshold holds the bare cell and the rich hall together.

Sources: Explains the 'continuous narrative' (istoria continua) device used to separate/unite successive moments of one story via architecture, as used in this composition type · Louvre catalogue record for RF 196 confirming medium (tempera on poplar), object type (predella element), and attribution to Fra Angelico · Barbara Baert (KU Leuven), 'Vox clamantis in deserto: The Johannesschüssel', Open Arts Journal 4 (2014). · Mark 6:22-26, Douay-Rheims (Challoner).

But sending an executioner, he commanded that his head should be brought in a dish.

Mark 6:27 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner)

Pray with this every day  ›

Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 8,830 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.