Flanders / c. 1637–38
The Feast of Herod (recto); Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus (verso)
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs The Feast of Herod (recto); Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus (verso) as drawing (Flanders · c. 1637–38).
The two stories that Rubens depicted on the front and back of this sheet of paper each feature a gruesome death, the result of revenge at the hands of a powerful woman.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this drawing as pen and brown ink, with black and red chalk, touched with white gouache and credits Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640).
The museum's collection notes: Peter Paul Rubens had a large studio in Antwerp and used drawing to prepare for large paintings as well as to direct the many pupils who assisted him. Striking in its immediacy, the drawing on the recto of this sheet of paper is a preparatory study for the Feast of Herod painting now at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Herod, wearing a large cap and wrapped in a mantle, shrinks back in horror as Salome uncovers a charger that holds the head of Saint John the Baptist. Smiling, Herodias grabs the platter with her left hand and, in a chilling detail, gestures toward the charger with a fork. Rubens wrote what is usually interpreted as
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Feast of Herod (recto); Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus (verso)Original explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.