Mary Salome and Zebedee right hand; he is expressively depicted as an elderly man with sunken cheeks, his gaze is fixed on the observer. He is dressed in a buttoned robe. Mary Salome and Zebedee Mary Salome and Zebedee by Tilman Riemenschneider (c.1460–1531) originally formed the right wing of an altarpiece showing the family of the Virgin Mary. The central scene would have shown St Anne seated with her daughter Mary and the Christ Child. Mary Salome was another daughter of St Anne, half sister of the Virgin and wife of Zebedee. Riemenschnieder was one of the most important sculptors in southern Germany in
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Caravaggio, London) a different painting of the same subject (see "Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Madrid)"). The handling and the raking light link this painting to works done in Naples during the artist's brief stay in the city during 1606–1607, an impression confirmed by the blances between Salome and the Virgin in the "Madonna of the Rosary", and between the executioner holding the head of the Baptist and one of the two torturers in "Christ at the Column" and "The Flagellation of Christ". From November to February 2012–2013 this painting was part of the exhibition "Bodies and Shadows: Caravaggio