Francesco Cairo, Herodias and the Head of John the Baptist, 1625

Self-proclaimed wimp, I personally despise gruesome paintings. In fact, I shy far away from them by uttering a gasp and slamming my computer screen shut.  Herodias and the Head of John the Baptist was no different. Poor John the Baptist and his unhappy severed head just filled me with a strong urge to stop looking at the painting immediately and search the internet kittens and puppies to relieve the image.

However, the more I force myself to look at Cairo's painting, the more I begrudgingly appreciate the darkness and horror of the work. It's horrifyingly beautiful with the lighting that appears from the right and the eloquent facial expressions.

Upon cautious, closer inspection, however, once again the enormous urge to vanquish the painting from my sight resurfaced. His tongue! Herodias is swooning in happiness as her hand hovers over the tongue of John. Clearly, someone's excited that John died. But she's holding something faint between her fingertips.

Apparently she's holding a thin needle and the source of her happiness is because she hated John's preaching to her husband, Harold, earlier. Perhaps he insulted her attempt at swag with her hanging chains. But whatever the reason for her abhorrence, she ordered for his death and his head. When the beheaded John was brought to her, she delightedly pierced his tongue - a revenge for speaking against her. What a hardcore woman. Joan of Arc could only dream of such a vengeful attitude.

The intricacy of the painting finally surpassed all automatic impulses to delete the photo off my computer. The awesome detail to Herodias' delighted expression and the slightly-agitated facial expression of John the Baptist brings out an inexplicable feeling of awe and terror simultaneously.

Though I still don't fully like this and plan on deleting this after I finish the blog post, I've at least come to appreciate the dark event portrayed beautifully in the painting.