Salome, c.1500-49 (oil on panel)

Christian tradition depicts Salome as a dangerous icon of female seductiveness. After bewitching King Herod with her dancing he granted her any wish and Salome, responding to the wishes of her mother Herodias, requested the head of Saint John the Baptist on a plate. New Testament (Matthew 14: 1-12). Here Salome is shown standing at full-length on the right, gesturing with her right hand to a dish set on an elaborate table on the left. Behind the table an executioner places the Baptist's head in the dish; the head of a third figure is dimly seen in the background. This is one of a number of paintings of similar composition, of which the prime version is in the Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna. There is another good quality version in the National Gallery, London (NG2485). This is a more lifeless picture than the one in London and is much more lifeless than the one in Vienna, which is revealed in x-rays to have undergone numerous creative revisions. The authorship of the Vienna picture is confirmed by Lomazzo, who owned it; this version is associated with Cesare da Sesto but is not by his hand. Provenance Charles I collection