Unpublished and largely unknown to scholars, this arresting portrayal of Salome with the Head of John the Baptist has been identified by Prof. Riccardo Lattuada as one of the most accomplished works by the little-known painter Diana de Rosa, also known as Annella di Massimo due to her close relationship to Massimo Stanzione (1585–1656). Highly successful throughout her career, she was one of the very few female artists active in Naples during the first half of the seventeenth century, a period in which professional artistic practice was overwhelmingly male-dominated. Alongside her contemporary Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1653)—active in the Vesuvian city between 1629 and 1654, and whose work de Rosa would almost certainly have known—she represents a rare and significant female presence within the Neapolitan Baroque milieu.

This work depicts the moment just after the beheading of John the Baptist, as the bare-shouldered executioner, shown in profile, begins to sheath his sword, his penetrating and knowing gaze directed powerfully towards the viewer. In the centre of the composition stands the elegant figure of Salome, sumptuously attired in a vibrant yellow dress with white sleeves featuring delicate lace cuffs and draped with a red cloak pinned to her dress by a golden brooch encrusted with a gemstone. Her headpiece is similarly ornate, set with multicoloured jewels and black pearls. On a metal salver she presents the Baptist’s severed head, glancing enigmatically sideways, perhaps in disgust or shame at the outcome of her actions. In contrast to the young and beautiful Salome is the elderly maidservant, depicted in shadow behind her, her face wrinkled with age and her hands clasped together in grief while she stares down at the severed head. The scene is plunged into a bleak, isolating darkness, in which the starkly lit figures, grouped closely together in silence, are united by the heartless deed that has just taken place.

The subject of Salome with the Head of John the Baptist was well suited to interpretation by artists active in the turbulent city of Naples during the early Baroque period. The dramatic possibilities of this episode were recognised by a wide array of painters, none more so than Caravaggio (1571–1610) himself. His own treatment of this subject, known in two variants dating from his Neapolitan period, is likely to have inspired this work, notably the painting in the Spanish Royal collects ion, Madrid (fig. 1).¹ More specifically, aside from the compositional similarities between the two pictures, the figure of the executioner depicted in profile, clasping his sword, appears particularly comparable. However, in Caravaggio’s rendition, he gazes downwards at the head of the Baptist with his dark, hooded eyes. In contrast, de Rosa portrays him looking outwards towards the viewer with an almost challenging gaze, thereby shifting the attention, and possibly the blame, from Salome towards himself, the perpetrator of the crime.

Whether de Rosa was aware of Caravaggio’s Salome remains a mystery, as the early provenance of that work has yet to be firmly established. However, it is likely that the painting remained in Naples for some years before entering the Spanish Royal collects ion. In fact, it can be related to a mention in the inventory of the possessions of García de Avellaneda y Haro (1584–1670), Count of Castrillo and Viceroy of Naples from 1653 to 1658.² It is possible that the canvas only left Naples in 1659, following Castrillo’s return to Spain, where it is listed from 1666 in the first inventory of the Alcázar Palace, Madrid. Furthermore, the influence of Caravaggio’s Salome on the development of Neapolitan painting is undeniable. This is particularly evident in the works of de Rosa’s contemporaries, including Battistello Caracciolo (1578–1635), Louis Finson (1580–1617) and, most importantly, Massimo Stanzione (fig. 2), whose own interpretations of the biblical tale are deeply indebted to Caravaggio’s composition and find parallels with the present work.³

Born in Naples in 1602 into a family of artists, Diana de Rosa was the daughter of the late-mannerist painter Tommaso de Rosa (d. 1610) and older sister of the celebrated Giovan Francesco de Rosa (1607–1656), known as Pacecco de Rosa. Following the death of her father, her mother, Caterina de Mauro, married the Caravaggesque painter Filippo Vitale (1585–1650), in whose workshop Diana and her brother are thought to have received their early training.⁴ Demonstrating talent from a young age, in 1621 she joined the workshop of Gaspare Del Popolo, a close friend and relation to Massimo Stanzione, whose classical style and brilliant colouring were of significant importance to the development of de Rosa’s art. According to her early biographer, Bernardo de’ Dominici, Stanzione was greatly impressed by her abilities and invited her to join his workshop, actively promoting her career and providing her with numerous private and public commissions. He further relays de Rosa’s desire to ‘esporre al pubblico alcuna opera di sua mano, per far conoscere, che anche le Donne fanno acquistare l’eccelenza dell’Arte’ (‘exhibit her works to the public, to demonstrate that women too could attain excellence in art’),⁵ and how she inspired women in her circle to paint.⁶ In 1626 she married the painter Agostino Beltrano (1607–1665), whom she had met in Del Popolo’s workshop a few years earlier. In 1627, the couple renewed their apprenticeship with him for a further five years. Fascinatingly, their employment contract stated that their master would cover all maternity leave expenses for Diana, who, between 1629 and 1640, is thought to have had at least seven children,⁷ including Cristina Beltrano, who herself became a painter.⁸

Diana de Rosa died in 1643 at the age of 41 and was buried, in accordance with her wishes, in the Church of Gesù Nuovo, Naples. The cause of her death has been a matter of dispute among scholars due to De’ Dominici’s claim that she was murdered by her husband in a jealous rage, after he was led to believe that she was having an affair with Stanzione.⁹ In the nineteenth century, the romantic revival of historic tradition, combined with the melodramatic allure of the crime of passion, served to reignite and sensationalize De’ Dominici’s account, which became the subject of several novels and theatrical plays, including the anonymous Anna de Rosa ossia una folle gelosia from 1841.¹⁰ De Rosa’s dramatic story also inspired a number of paintings including Annella de Rosa and Massimo Stanzione by Giuseppe Tramontano (1832–after 1916), Collezione Intesa Sanpaolo, Gallerie d’Italia, Naples (fig. 3),¹¹ and Annella de Rosa being urged by the maidservant to be kind to her teacher Massimo Stanzione by Luigi Stabile (1822–after 1891), Villa Rosebery, Naples.¹² This claim later proved to be unfounded: her death certificate, rediscovered in 1951, makes no mention of the cruel and gruesome end relayed by De Dominici.¹³

We are grateful to Prof. Riccardo Lattuada for proposing the attribution to Diana de Rosa on the basis of digital images. He dates the work to circa 1635.¹⁴ We are also grateful to Prof. Giuseppe Porzio for his thoughts on the picture. He suggests the painting may be the result of a collaboration between Filippo Vitale and the young Diana de Rosa and dates it to the early 1620s.

¹ Inv. no. 10010026; oil on canvas; 116 x 140 cm. The dating of this picture oscillates in the literature between 1606 and 1609/10. The second treatment of this subject, considered to be later and dating to 1609/10, is in the National Gallery, London (NG6389); for a discussion of both versions see S. Schütze, Caravaggio. The Complete Works, Cologne 2009, pp. 281–82, nos 60 and 63, reproduced in colour.

² L. Nocchi in Caravaggio Napoli, M.C. Terzaghi (ed.), exh. cat., Naples 2019, p. 154.

³ M.C. Terzaghi, ‘Caravaggio a Napoli: un percorso’, in Naples 2019, pp. 40 and 43.

⁴ V. Pacelli, Giovan Francesco de Rosa detto Pacecco de Rosa, 1607–1656, Naples 2008, p. 12.

⁵ B. De’ Dominici, Vite de' Pittori, Scultori, ed Architetti Napoletani, Naples 1742, vol. III, p. 97.

⁶ De’ Dominici specifically mentions two: one called Caterina who specialised in devotional paintings, and another, a nun, who depicted vignettes surrounded by flower garlands painted by the young Giuseppe Recco; De’ Dominici 1742, vol. III, pp. 97–98.

⁷ G. Porzio, Diana Di Rosa. “An exceedingly beautiful, honest and skilful painter” in Seventeenth-century Naples, Naples 2023, p. 25 ns 32 and 33.

⁸ Several minor works by Cristina Beltrano are known. The most significant is arguably a painting of The Holy Family with Saint Anne and Saint Joachim, signed and dated 1684, in the Church of Corpus Domini, Gragnano; Porzio 2023, p. 25 n. 34;

⁹ De’ Dominici 1742, vol. III, p. 99.

¹⁰ Porzio 2023, 17.

¹¹ Inv. no. AZ01133A; oil on canvas; Porzio 2023, p. 19, reproduced in colour;

¹² Inv. no. 6590 O.A; oil on canvas; Porzio 2023, p. 18, reproduced in colour;

¹³ U. Prota Giurleo, ‘Un complesso familiare di artisti napoletani del secolo XVII’, in Napoli–Rivista municipale, LXXVII, 195, 7–8, pp. 25 and 31.

¹⁴ A copy of his expertise, dated 30 May 2025, is available upon request.