John the Baptist reproving Herod
John Rogers Herbert, RA (Maldon 1810 – Kilburn 1890)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1848 (signed and dated) - 1848 (exh at RA)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1194 x 1715 mm (47 x 67 1/2 in)
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Penrhyn Castle, Gwynedd
NT 1420375
Caption
This biblical scene is described in the New Testament in Mark 6: 17-20. John the Baptist is shown castigating a bethroned Herod for marrying his brother’s wife, Herodias. She looks on to his left, supported by her daughter Salome, still holding her tambourine whilst her lyre is propped up against a stool. As a consequence John was imprisoned, and later - thanks to Herod’s reluctant fulfilment of his promise to grant Salome whatever she wished for, after she had danced for him - beheaded. The artist was a forerunner of the Pre-Raphaelites, much influenced by the German Nazarenes, who turned to painting religious subjects of this kind after his conversion to Catholicism. It was an early purchase of the 1st Lord Penryhn in 1848 and later disliked by him.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, John the Baptist reproving Herod by John Rogers Herbert, RA (Maldon 1810 – Kilburn 1890), signed and dated, lower right: J R Herbert 1848. John the Baptist, to the left, admonishes a bethroned Herod. Herodias – to his left – looks on, supported by Salome, still holding her tambourine, and her lyre propped against a stool. Mark 6: 17-20. John castigated Herod for marrying his brother’s wife, Herodias. As a consequence John was imprisoned, and later, thanks to Herod’s reluctant fulfilment of his promise to grant Herodias’s daughter Salome whatever she wished after she had danced for him, beheaded. The sketch for Baptist figure is in a private collection.
Provenance
Bought by Colonel Edward Gordon Douglas-Pennant, 1st Baron Penrhyn (1800 – 1886) in 1848 (from the RA), "who afterwards disliked it very much”; thence by descent; accepted by HM Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the National Trust in 2005
Credit line
Penrhyn Castle, The Douglas Pennant Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
'1848' (signed and dated)
Makers and roles
John Rogers Herbert, RA (Maldon 1810 – Kilburn 1890), artist
References
Penrhyn Castle, Gwynedd 1902: [Alice Douglas Pennant] Catalogue of Pictures at Penrhyn Castle and Mortimer House in 1901, Bangor, 1902, no. 149