Salome

Cesare da Sesto painted this Salome around 1515 for the National Gallery. Da Sesto was one of the most accomplished followers of Leonardo da Vinci in Milan, and his treatment of the femme fatale subject demonstrates the Leonardesque school's ability to combine beauty with psychological complexity. The 1510s were a decade of extraordinary artistic achievement across Europe, shaped by the mature works of Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and the Venetian masters.

The figure demonstrates da Sesto's mastery of Leonardesque sfumato with the seductive interplay of beauty and menace rendered through subtle tonal modeling and the ambiguous smile derived from his study of Leonardo's work.