The Head of Saint John the Baptist is a tondo painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini.There has been much debate over whether to attribute the work to Bellini or to Marco Zoppo. It was initially ascribed to Zoppo by Adolfo Venturi (); after a prevalent attribution to Bellini, the most recent criticism seems more inclined towards Zoppo (). It is not considered in the catalogue raisonné, where incidentally the Zoppo hypothesis is considered as established (). It is now housed in the Civic Museum of Pesaro.

The painting depicts the head of the Saint John the Baptist just after his decapitation, with blood still dripping from the neck. The perspective from below show the influence of the treatises about perspectival representation of the human figure which were being published at the time, such as Piero della Francesca's De prospectiva pingendi.

Stylistically, the brilliant colors and the dramatic painting are similar to those of the Saint Vincent Ferrer Altarpiece, the first mature work by Bellini, dated to after 1464.

See also

List of works by Giovanni Bellini

References

Sources