Description
c1915 22" Bronze Sculpture of Salome with John the Baptist's Head by Philipp<br>Modrow<br><br>A rare work from a rather obscure sculptor, this example captures the famous<br>Biblical scene of Salome with John the Baptist's head. Herod's second wife,<br>Herodias, originally the wife of his brother Philip, had her daughter Salome<br>dance before Herod and his entire court in hopes of manipulating him against<br>John the Baptist. John was outspoken in his reproach of Herod for taking his<br>brother's wife and Herodias wanted him executed for this, though Herod would not<br>comply. However, greatly pleased by her dancing and drunk with his guests, Herod<br>promised to give Salome anything she asked for, up to half of his kingdom.<br>Salome asked to have the head of John the Baptist on a plate, as he was<br>presently held in the king's prisons. Placed in an awkward position in front of<br>his court, he was forced to grant her request despite his own personal<br>objections. The scene is moving in it's exceptional rendering of Salome's<br>careless and selfish nature. She clutches her prize with a certain grotesque<br>pleasure, an unsettling image of one so led astray for the vengeance of her<br>mother to an empty and ugly result. Modrow has sculpted her ingeniously to be<br>equal parts beautiful and repulsive. She stands before a naturalistic rock<br>backdrop. The sculpture is signed on the right and impressed by the foundry on<br>the left. Philipp Modrow (German, 1882-1925) is documented in the E. Benezit<br>Dictionary of Artists (Gründ, Vol. IX, p. 1080) as being the student of Emil<br>Cauer Jr. and that he is noted for his 1923 sculpture "Monument to Spengler" in<br>Davos, where he died in December of 1925.
