This powerful and dramatic work exemplifies the stylistic versatility of Pietro della Vecchia, an artist who combined the legacy of sixteenth-century Venetian masters with the Caravaggesque influences he absorbed in Rome. The scene depicts Herod presenting the severed head of Saint John the Baptist, flanked by the aged Herodias: an image at once ambiguous and provocative, rendered with vivid colors and a realism that intensifies its emotional tension. The choice of portraying Herod as a “bravo” and the figure of the old woman recall Vecchia’s pseudo-Giorgionesque repertoire, in dialogue with Giorgione’s famous Vecchia at the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice. Dated to the 1620s–30s, the painting reflects the libertine and transgressive taste of Baroque Venice, likely connected to the milieu of the Incogniti, and stands as one of the most original and theatrical expressions of seventeenth-century Venetian painting.
Provenance Papafava Collection, Padua; art market, Milan, 1990s; private collection, Italy, until 2019; then acquired by the present owner. Literature B. Aikema, Pietro della Vecchia and the Heritage of the Renaissance in Venice, Florence 1990, p. 132, no. 107
