JUAN DE VALDES LEAL

(1622 / 1690)

JUAN DE VALDES LEAL Seville (1622) / (1690) "Head of Saint John the Baptist", c. 1670-1675

Oil on canvas. The work shown here recalls the tragic outcome of the biblical passage in which Salome, instigated by Herodias, danced and convinced Herod to serve her the head of the Baptist on a silver platter. The fatal consequence of this episode is shown on the canvas through an image of great visual impact that, in the rhetoric of the Baroque, also contained an important moral and reflective background in which various themes are intertwined such as heartbreak, jealousy, intrigue, revenge, incest, lust and the topic of women as the instigator of sin. The severed heads of saints, such as that of Saint John the Baptist, were a recurring theme in Spanish Baroque painting, especially in the Seville school. Sebastian de Llanos Valdes (c. 1605-1677) and his imitators addressed this theme on several occasions, but in this painting we can recognise the unmistakable style and technique of Juan de Valdes Leal. The supremacy of colour over drawing, the very personal red tone of the cloak, the white lead glints on the metal of the tray and the knife, the rustic texture of the cane cross, the way of constructing the flesh tone of the face, the hair blending with the depth of the black background, the halo barely suggested with a thin and brief curved line and the fluidity of the phylactery, which seems to spill like a waterfall into the tray, speak to us of the mastery that the Sevillian artist had achieved in these years. Apart from all this, it is worth highlighting its relationship with the drawing of the same theme that is preserved in the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, which must have been preparatory; one of the few sure works by his hand and which, until now, was linked to the work of Carmen Calzado in Cordoba and with an earlier chronology. In the lower right corner there is an old collection number that has not been identified, with Arabic numerals in white (No. 78). All these details, together with the remarkable period frame and its good state of conservation, make this painting an important novelty in the production of this Sevillian artist who is fundamental to the history of Spanish Golden Age art. Dimensions: 45.5 x 62 cm.