The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

Albrecht Altdorfer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The head of the martyred saint is handed over to Salome by the executioner as a crowd looks on. The scene of Saint John the Baptist's beheading occupies only the lower third of the image. For Altdorfer, the architecture and surroundings were clearly just as important as the figures. The composition is a study in perspective, with even the onlookers arranged in a diagonal line that leads to a point just above Salome's head.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.