Head - Head of St John the Baptist


I have always tried to test myself in museums. Trying to identify the artist or the subject of a work before reading the information card.

Is it a Saint? Can I identify which one based on the Attributes the artist has included?

St. Peter's keys.
Veronica's napkin.
Sebastian's arrows.
Bartholomew's skin.
Catherine's wheel.
James' shell.
The lion.
The bull.
The eagle.

One day in the V & A, I came upon a small sculpture. A bearded head resting on the museum's display table. No visible attributes. Nothing overt to identify the subject.

I looked at the card: "John the Baptist"
How could that be?
No hair shirt.
No reed cross.
It was just a head.
It was just a head.

It was just a head.

Oh. Right.



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