Beheading of St. John the Baptist
1608 · Co-Cathedral of St. John, Valletta
The only canvas Caravaggio ever signed, and he signed it in the blood running from the saint's throat, for the knights of Malta.
★ 8.4
The Art canon
Sourced and hung.
Every work chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
Browse all 704 works or filter by movement, subject, place, and artist.
Browse all 704 works or filter by movement, subject, place, and artist.
Banquet of Herod
1435 · Church of Saints Stephen and Lawrence, Castiglione Olona
The feast on the left, the severed head delivered on the right, both staged in a colonnade built with Masaccio's new perspective.
★ 4.8
Herod's Banquet
1490 · Santa Maria Novella, Florence
The head arrives on a platter inside a serene sunlit loggia full of well-dressed Florentines, many of them the family who paid.
★ 4.7