The Feast of Herod (Rubens)

The Feast of Herod is a c.1635-1638 oil on canvas painting by Peter Paul Rubens, now in the National Galleries of Scotland, for which it was bought in 1958.

It shows a scene from the Gospels in which Herodias' daughter received John the Baptist's head as a reward for her dancing. The work was probably commissioned by patron and collector Gaspar Roomer and possibly helped introduce a neo-Venetian style to Naples which would have a major impact on the evolution of the city's own strand of Baroque painting.