Salome presented with the severed head of St. John the Baptist last appeared at auction over 25 years ago in 1998, when it realized $5.5 million - a record at the time - and returns to the auction block this January with an estimate of $25 – 35 million. The work is one of only three important paintings of historical and biblical scenes by Rubens ever to have come to auction, the other two of which rank among the most valuable old masters ever sold.

Little is known about the commission for the painting, but it is documented in Spanish royal inventories from 1666 until 1700. Rubens marketed himself to Spanish patrons from early in his career, making many trips to Spain, and probably received this commission from one of the many Spanish aristocrats who traveled through Antwerp in those years. This work is his only treatment of this subject executed for a private patron rather than a religious setting.

In this composition, Salome is based on the same female model and wears same red satin dress and yellow satin cloak as Delilah in Samson and Delilah, which had been commissioned to hang above the fireplace of Nicolaas Rockox - a mayor of Antwerp and important patron and friend to Rubens. The size of this work suggests it was originally hung in a more intimate setting. Like Salome, Delilah uses her feminine wiles to ensnare the unsuspecting hero Samson, cut off his hair, and cause his downfall. Rubens painted a third work that echoes the theme of dangerously powerful women in 1609: the now lost Judith and Holofernes.

At the wedding feast of King Herod and Herodias, King Herod was so taken with his new daughter-in-law Salome's dancing that he promised her whatever gift she desired. St. John the Baptist had recently condemned the union of Salome's mother Herodias with her own brother-in-law, Herod, and for that offense, she requested his head. In this work, Rubens depicts the moment after the beheading, as the executioner begins to sheath his sword. Salome scolds the head on the silver platter, and the maidservant nearby pulls on his tongue, highlighting both the gruesomeness of the scene and the reason for his execution - his outspoken admonishment of incest. The masterful composition includes six figures, each reacting differently to John the Baptist’s body and severed head.

Rubens returned from Italy in 1608 full of all he had seen and studied there, both Renaissance and Classical, and immediately produced a series of paintings of towering significance within his work, reinterpreting these Italian and classical inspirations, and in particular Michelangelo, in his own uniquely powerful idiom. In the span of barely three years, he painted: the great Raising of and Descent from the Cross triptychs, for the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp, Belgium; Samson and Delilah, in The National Gallery in London, The Massacre of the Innocents in the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, and Salome presented with the severed head of Saint John the Baptist in the Fisch Davidson collection – the only product of this extraordinary onrush of creative energy still in private hands. In style, palette, subject matter, naturalistic detail, and emotion, the relatively intimate panel contains all the drama, violence, and emotional power of the Baroque era.

Painted circa 1614, this masterpiece of Baroque naturalism is among Valentin de Boulogne’s earliest works. Executed soon after Valentin’s arrival in Rome, the artist’s pathos-filled rendition of the mocking and crowning of Christ is a testament to the speed with which he internalized and then synthesized myriad contemporary sources, newly available to him in the Eternal City.

Christ Crowned with Thorns was previously held in the collection of A. Alfred Taubman, and offered in the auction of his collection of Old Masters at Sotheby’s in 2016, when it sold for $5.2 million – the current auction record for the artist.

Valentin was Caravaggio’s most accomplished French follower as well as arguably his greatest acolyte, and Caravaggio’s Christ crowned with thorns in Prato served as an important source of inspiration for the Frenchman, who skillfully adapted his tenebrist style. In essentially Caravaggesque style, Valentin presented the narrative’s actors nearly flush with the picture plane against a bare black background, thus enhancing the scene’s immediacy. The cinematic use of light to focus attention on the centrally positioned Christ is equally evocative of Caravaggio and artists in his orbit. Valentin also looked to sources well beyond Rome: the cruel motif of the menacing man bearing down on Christ’s skull derives from an etching by Annibale Carracci of the same subject.

Valentin focuses this scene on the interplay of three figures, all done dal naturale, or ‘from life’. The drama transpires across the canvas, accentuating the image’s theatrical tension. At left, a young soldier kneels before Christ, with mere inches separating their faces – almost a study in opposites. The youth’s profile is defined by his open mouth, from which one can imagine him shouting invectives. Conversely, Christ looks skyward as a warm light appears to offer the promise of deliverance. At upper right, a ruddy-faced man forces the crown of thorns upon Christ’s head while looking directly at the spectators - a pictorial device that both implicates and involves them in the violent act.