Salome’s dance so pleases her stepfather, King Herod Antipas (son of Herod the Great), he promises her anything: “What ever you ask me I will give you, even half of my kingdom” (Mark 6:23). She requests the head of John the Baptist, who was imprisoned in the palace for having denounced Herod’s marriage to Salome’s mother.

In Paul Manship’s 1915 sculpture, the princess dances on the Baptist’s head. Born in Minnesota in 1885, Manship promoted the elegant and “modern” Art Deco style in American sculpture. (He also created the gilded bronze Prometheus fountain that watches over ice skaters at Rockefeller Center, in Manhattan.)

The statue recalls Oscar Wilde’s 1894 tale of obsession, Salome, in which the princess tries desperately to seduce John the Baptist but is rebuffed. She requests his head in revenge and revels when she receives it:

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