Mary Salome and Zebedee 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 the late fifteenth and sixteenth century. He specialised is carving limewood altarpieces, some of which were painted. Others, such as this example which was carved in Würzburg
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.