
ca. 1515
Da Costa hours
Illuminated by Simon Bening (1483/84–1561)
Ghent, Belgium
172 x 125 mm
MS M.399, fol. 273v
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913), 1910
Catalog link
John Baptist: Beheading—An executioner, supporting himself with a sword held in his right hand, places the nimbed head of John Baptist on a platter held by Salome. On the ground beside him is the decapitated body of John Baptist. To the left, a male figure appears in an archway of a building decorated with sculpture. The head of a male figure is visible in a niche in a far wall. The scene is framed by a border decorated with flowers and inhabited by butterflies and a snail.