All works in Early Netherlandish Paintings

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen

Salome with the Head of John the Baptist

Amsterdam, 1524

Object data

oil on panel

support: height 71.8 cm × width 53.6 cm
frame: height 83.8 cm × width 66.5 cm × thickness 5.5 cm

Inscriptions

signature and date, top centre on a banderole in the sky: 1524 I AWA A signed with initials and ligated house mark

Technical notes

The support consists of two vertically grained oak planks (23.6 and 30 cm), 0.7-1.0 cm thick. The panel seems to be slightly trimmed at the top, right and left sides. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1483. The panel could have been ready for use by 1494, but a date in or after 1508 is more likely. The white ground, which is visible through the paint layers and at the edges, runs to the edges of the panel. There are no traces of a barbe or unpainted edges. A sketchy underdrawing made with a dry material is partly visible to the naked eye in the figure, the head and the dress (fig. b, fig. c). Infrared reflectography makes it clear that a fluttering veil was originally planned to the right of Salome and that she had a different headdress, possibly with two buttons on either side of her head. There are 'pentimenti' in her headdress (decorative elements above the ears which were partially executed in paint), hair (long shoulder-length curls painted out), and neckline (curved instead of square). The Baptist’s head was reserved, and slightly enlarged in the paint layer. There are fingerprints in the dish to the left of his head.

Scientific examination and reports

X-radiography: RMA, 23 February 1949
X-radiography: RMA, no. 301, June 1986
infrared reflectography: J.R.J van Asperen de Boer, RKD, nos. AB 933:23-935:19, 17 March 1986
dendrochronology: P. Klein, RMA, 26 October 1995
infrared reflectography: M. Wolters / K. Wensveen [2], RKD/RMA, no. RKDG320, 5 October 2004
condition report: W. de Ridder, RMA, 19 July 2005

Condition

Good. There is some minor abrasion, discoloured retouchings along the join and at the bottom of the panel, and the varnish is slightly discoloured.

Conservation

H.H. Mertens, 1959: complete restoration
H.H. Mertens, 1959
H.H. Mertens, 1959
M. Zeldenrust, 1985: complete restoration

Provenance

…; ? estate inventory, Albertina Agnes (1634-1696), Princess of Orange Nassau, Frisian Stadtholder’s court, Leeuwarden, January/February 1681, no. 901 (‘Een viercante, schoone schilderie met het hooft van Johannes, door Quintus Massius’);¹ ...; ? estate inventory, Schloss Oranienstein, Dietz, 1684, ‘In ihro hochheit der hertzogin vorcammer’, no. 74 (‘Item eine schillerey van Johannes, worunter noch ein klein stückgen von gethierts ohne leist’);² estate inventory, Schloss Oranienstein, Dietz, 1726, ‘In the great gallery’, no. 344 (‘Herodis tochter mit dem haupt Johannes von I.M.A. gemahlt 1524’);³ transferred from Schloss Oranienstein, Dietz, to the collection Willem V (1748-1806), Kabinet van Schilderijen [Gallerij Willem V], Het Buitenhof, The Hague, as Timoteo da Urbino, 1775;⁴ described in this collection, before 1793, no. 193, as Timoteo da Urbino (‘De Danseres van Herodes, houdende het Hoofd van Johannes, voor haar in een Schotel, in de manier van Raphaël, gemerkt met deze volgende letters I W A 1524, op paneel, in een zwarte lijst met vergulde bies. Hoog: 2 voet, 3½ duim, Breed: 1 voet, 8½ duim [72 x 53.6 cm].’);⁵ confiscated by the French and taken to Paris, 1795;⁶ ? repossessed and transferred to the Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen, The Hague, 1815;⁷ on loan to the museum from the Mauritshuis, The Hague, since 1948; on loan to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 2004-10

Object number: SK-C-1349

Credit line: On loan from the Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis

The artist

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen (Oostzaan c. 1472/77 - Amsterdam 1528/33)

Van Mander states that Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen was born in Oostzaan, a small village north of Amsterdam, and that he was already an experienced painter with teenage children when Jan van Scorel entered his workshop around 1512. Going by Van Mander’s information that Jacob’s son Dirck died in 1567 at around 70 years of age, meaning that he was born c. 1497, it is assumed that Jacob was born between 1472 and 1477. There is no information about his parents, nor when he moved to Amsterdam or by whom he was trained. Nor is it known when Jacob married his wife Anna. They had four children, at least two of whom were trained by their father: Cornelis Jacobsz, about whom there is no further information, and Dirck Jacobsz, who was best known as a portrait painter. Also according to Van Mander, Jacob Cornelisz’s brother was Cornelis Buys I, who was active as a painter in Alkmaar. The earliest mention of Jacob Cornelisz in Amsterdam is an archival document from 1500 that shows that he bought a house in the Kalverstraat. Since his wife is recorded as a widow on 18 October 1533, and his second house was sold in his absence in the autumn of 1532, it is accepted that he died before the first date, and possibly before the second. In 1526, 1527 and 1528, Egmond Abbey paid him for work on a large retable, so his date of death can be placed somewhere between 1528 and 1533.

Several of the paintings and the bulk of the drawings by Jacob Cornelisz bear his initials I (for Iacob) and A (referring to the city where he worked) and his monogram, which consists of a V and an upside-down W, the latter probably an allusion to the surname War or Warre that he sometimes used.

Most of the 200-odd woodcuts after designs by Jacob Cornelisz are dated between 1507 and 1522, making it easy to follow his development. Only 6 of the 30 or so paintings attributed to him have the monogram, but a good number are dated. The earliest ones with dates are two of 1507 that are attributed to him: the Noli me tangere in Kassel,⁸ and The Crucifixion in a private collection.⁹ His last known, securely attributed painting dates from 1526 (SK-A-668).

In addition to paintings on canvas and panel and woodcuts there are designs for stained-glass windows and copes, and ceiling paintings. Jacob’s painted oeuvre mostly consists of religious works: large altarpieces, smaller panels for private devotion, and several which appear to have been made for the open market. There are also a few autonomous portraits that are attributed to him. Jacob’s earliest works are craftsman-like and executed in a very laborious technique, looking more as if they were drawn with paint than painted. The choice of subject is traditional. It was only in his later work, undoubtedly influenced by Jan van Scorel, that he transcended the craftsman-like in technique, style and iconography. His large output indicates that he had a sizable workshop with several assistants, including Jan van Scorel and his sons Cornelis Jacobsz and Dirck Jacobsz, and possibly his grandsons Cornelis Anthonisz and Jacob Dirksz as well.

References
Van Mander 1604, fol. 207r-v; Brulliot I, 1832, no. 19; Cohen in Thieme/Becker VII, 1912, pp. 428-30; Steinbart 1922, pp. 2-8; Steinbart 1929, pp. 1-48; Friedländer XII, 1935, pp. 96-111; Steinbart 1937; Hoogewerff III, 1939, pp. 72-143; Bruyn 1966, pp. 149, 160, 161; ENP XII, 1975, pp. 53-64; Van Eeghen 1986, pp. 95-132; Carroll 1987; Miedema II, 1995, pp. 284-93; Carroll in Turner 1996, VII, pp. 868-70; Beaujean in Saur XXI, 1999, pp. 235-38; Meuwissen 2006, pp. 55-81

(Daantje Meuwissen)

Entry

Salome, the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas, is seen here with the head of John the Baptist on a metal platter (Matthew 14:3-12; Mark 6:17-29). In the past it was suggested that the woman is not Salome but her mother Herodias,¹⁰ but that theory was thoroughly demolished by Carroll.¹¹ Salome is standing beneath an antique stone arch, and is shown frontally at half length. In the background is a landscape with farmhouses and a river. The painting is dated 1524 in a banderole in the sky, which is also signed with the initial of Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen’s first name (I for Jacob), his house mark (AWA ligated standing for Warre) and the letter A standing for Amsterdam.

Typologically, Salome with the head of John the Baptist on a sacrificial dish is a presage of Christ’s death on the cross. The scene originated in the 15th century, and was depicted several times in the 16th century. Similar contemporary compositions with an almost identical depiction of the Baptist’s head are known from the circles around Lucas van Leyden,¹² Hans Baldung Grien¹³ and Juan de Flandes (fig. a).

This Salome is very simply attired compared to Jacob Cornelisz’s Mary Magdalen of 1519, in which the Magdalen is shown with fluttering hair and costly necklaces.¹⁴ That simplification is typical of the iconographic and stylistic changes in Jacob Cornelisz’s work of this period, when traditional subjects made way for new iconographic themes, and his dark palette with saturated colours was replaced by bright pastel tints, like the pinkish red and pale turquoise used in this Salome. Instead of his characteristic “drawn” paint surfaces, as seen in the Triptych with the Adoration of the Magi of 1517 (SK-A-4706) there are more modelled passages in the later work. His manner of underdrawing also changed in this period. In contrast to the lively, often rather chaotic underdrawing in the earlier paintings, this Salome displays a more tranquil, considered way of preparing a painting, with a few wavy lines here and there (fig. b).

The Salome envisaged in the underdrawing was more luxuriant than the finished figure. The artist had planned a fluttering veil to the right of her head, and indeed it can still be seen through the paint layers. She initially wore her hair loose or had a different headdress, possibly with two buttons on either side of the head (fig. c). Several strands of curly hair on both sides of the face were later painted out, making way for the present cap. The peaceful, simple composition is thus partly the result of simplifications that Jacob Cornelisz made during the painting process, which illustrate the turning-point in his oeuvre.

(Daantje Meuwissen)

Literature

Brulliot I, 1832, p. 4 (as Quinten Massys); Nagler 1836, p. 206 (as Quinten Massys); Passavant III, 1862, p. 25 (as Lucas van Leyden, ‘Herodias with the head of John the Baptist’); Schmidt 1867, p. 43 (as ‘Herodias with the head of John the Baptist’); coll. cat. The Hague 1874, pp. 1-3, no. 1; Scheibler 1882, p. 18; coll. cat. The Hague 1913, pp. 62-63, no. 1; Nagler 1919, p. 9 (as ‘Herodias with the head of John the Baptist’); Steinbart 1922, pp. 125-27; Friedländer XII, 1935, pp. 100, 102, 104, 197, no. 284; coll. cat. The Hague 1935, p. 67, no. 1; Hoogewerff III, 1939, pp. 126-28; Amsterdam 1958, p. 100, no. 109; Drossaers/Lunsingh Scheurleer II, 1974, pp. 112, 123, 372; ENP XII, 1975, pp. 56-57, 118, no. 284; Drossaers/Lunsingh Scheurleer III, 1976, p. 241; Carroll in Amsterdam 1986a, pp. 132-33, no. 19; Carroll 1987, pp. 245-51; Meuwissen in Rotterdam 2008a, pp. 206-08, no. 33

Download Bibliografie (PDF)

Collection catalogues

1948, p. 27, no. 722 A2; 1956, p. 52, no. 722 A2; 1976, p. 176, no. C 1349

Citation

D. Meuwissen, 2008, 'Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen, Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, Amsterdam, 1524', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.8172

(accessed 26 April 2024 09:17:52).

Figures

fig. b Detail of the infrared reflectogram assembly of SK-C-1349, showing Salome’s right arm (© Stichting RKD)

fig. c Detail of the infrared reflectogram assembly of SK-C-1349, showing Salome’s head (© Stichting RKD)

fig. a Juan de Flandes, 'Herodias’s revenge', c. 1496/99. Oil on panel, 75.9 x 50.4 cm. Antwerp, Museum Mayer van den Bergh