Salome with the Head of John the Baptist

Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, painted around 1607-1610, depicts the moment when the severed head of the Baptist is presented on a platter. Caravaggio painted several versions of this subject during his years as a fugitive from Rome, and the severed head is often interpreted as a surrogate self-portrait reflecting the artist's own death sentence for murder. This version is in the National Gallery in London. The subject of Salome and the Baptist's head became one of Caravaggio's most personal and frequently revisited themes during his final troubled years.

The composition focuses on three half-length figures arranged around the central horror of the severed head, with the characteristic Caravaggesque raking light falling from the upper left. The faces express different emotional responses — Salome's distaste, the executioner's indifference, the old woman's sorrow — creating a psychological drama played out in dramatic chiaroscuro. The severed head is rendered with disturbing anatomical specificity.