Salome (or Herodias) with the Head of John the Baptist

Carlo Dolci's Salome (or Herodias) with the Head of John the Baptist, painted around 1665-70, is a characteristic devotional painting by the most intensely pious painter of 17th-century Florence. Dolci's meticulous technique and rapturous spiritual expression made his religious paintings among the most prized in Europe. The subject of the Baptist's severed head, presented on a platter, was treated by Dolci with the same jewel-like refinement he brought to all devotional subjects.

Dolci's oil-on-canvas technique demonstrates his extraordinarily smooth, polished brushwork creating an almost enamel-like surface. The luminous flesh tones and rich, saturated colors are built through meticulous layering of thin glazes, achieving the devotional intensity that was his hallmark.