Zebedee Zebedee Zebedee (, "Zebedaios", ; , "Zvad'yah", ), according to all four Canonical gospels, was the father of James and John, two disciples of Jesus. The gospels also suggest that he was the husband of Salome: whereas Mark 15:40 names the women present at the crucifixion as "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses, and Salome", the parallel passage in has "Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children." The "Catholic Encyclopedia" concludes that the Salome of Mark 15:40 is probably identical with the mother of
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Caravaggio, Madrid) Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Caravaggio, Madrid) Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Madrid), c. 1609, is a painting by the Italian master Caravaggio in the Palacio Real, Madrid. The early Caravaggio biographer Giovanni Bellori, writing in 1672, records the artist sending a "Salome with the Head of John the Baptist" from Naples to the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, Fra Alof de Wignacourt, in the hope of regaining favour after having been expelled from the Order in 1608. It seems likely that this is the work, according to Caravaggio scholar John Gash.