Courtly Portrait of a Lady, formerly Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist, Lucas Cranach de Oude (1530)
The painting formerly was an upright format, the head of John the Baptist was depicted on the lower section of the panel. This part was sawn off because it was felt to be too repulsive. By doing so the portrait turned the presentation of Salome into an icon of old-style German beauty that Wilhelm Hauff celebrated in a novella in 1826.
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