Head of St. John the Baptist

Aelbrecht Bouts painted this Head of Saint John the Baptist around 1500, a devotional image type frequently repeated in his Leuven workshop. The isolated head of the Baptist, presented on a charger, was a popular subject for private devotion in the Low Countries. Aelbrecht's versions closely follow his father Dirk's prototypes. The tempera medium required careful preparation on a gessoed panel and a disciplined layering technique that produced precise, durable surfaces suited to the intricate detail expected of devotional painting.

Oil on panel with precise, controlled technique inherited from the Bouts workshop. The naturalistic rendering of the severed head and the reflective platter demonstrate the workshop's mastery of surface textures.