(Venice or Vicenza 1602/3–1678 Venice)
Herod with the head of Saint John the Baptist,
oil on canvas, 81 x 93.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Papafava collection, Padua;
art market, Milan, 1990s;
Private collection, Italy, until 2019;
where 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

Pietro della Vecchia’s oeuvre is distinctive for its great stylistic versatility, ranging from reinterpretations of the great Venetian masters of the sixteenth century to the works of Caravaggio. The present painting clearly reflects the influence of the latter, whose work Vecchia encountered during his Roman sojourn during the early years of the 1620s. Consequently, the present painting, which is neither signed nor dated, should be dated to the latter years of the third decade of the seventeenth century.

The subjects depicted by Pietro Vecchia are curious, erotic at times, or transgressive, in line with the libertine culture of Venice during this period. The present painting is quite ambiguous or indeed provocative, it represents the severed head of Saint John held by Herod, flanked by his elderly wife, Herodias. Herod is dressed as a ‘bravo’ in the manner of the pseudo-giorgionesque pictorial tradition typical of Vecchia, while the aged Herodias loosely recalls the famous ‘Vecchia’ by Giorgione (Galletia dell’Accademia, Venice).

The compostion is a curiously provocative episode that is in alignment with the expectations of a public with libertine leanings, perhaps close to the famous freethinking Venetian academy of the Incogniti.