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A headless figure leans out of the first-floor window of a light-colored stone building from which two iron bars have been detatched, his blood spurting to the ground. A figure bends to collect the head while another looks away to sheath a long sword. From right, a robed man beholds the guesome scene.

The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

1455–60

Giovanni di Paolo (Italian, 1398–1482)

Italy

This series of panels illustrates scenes from the life of Saint John the Baptist, a prophet who foretold Jesus’s arrival as the Christian savior. The Art Institute’s collection includes six panels that were originally part of a group of 12 that possibly formed the doors of a reliquary shrine to the saint.

The narrative begins as John leaves civilization, entering the wilderness to become a hermit. In a following scene, John wears a hair shirt, a coarse undergarment symbolizing his ascetic life, as he announces that Jesus is the savior prophesied as the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God. Subsequent panels show John’s imprisonment and violent execution at the hands of Herod, ruler of Galilee. Giovanni di Paolo related the Baptist’s complex biography with expressive figures represented multiple times to indicate their movement through highly imaginative and stylized settings.

Tempera on panel

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Essentials