Offertory dish with The Head of the Baptist

John the Baptist was killed for having preached against the dissolute behaviour of Herod Antipas (20 BC – after AD 39), who was married to his sister-in-law Herodias, the mother of Salome. It was the latter, after the famous episode of the “dance of the seven veils”, who asked for the head of the Baptist as her reward. During the Fourth Crusade, the skull of the saint was found in Constantinople and was taken to Amiens Cathedral, in France, where it remained until the seventeenth century. Here, the relic was placed on a silver dish and covered with a mask studded with precious stones. Crowds of pilgrims flocked to Amiens to venerate it and, like ours, dozens of dishes now preserved throughout Europe recall the Amiens reliquary in wood or precious materials. The cult of skulls dates back to pre-Christian times and is linked to the symbolism of the head, as the centre of thought and of intermediation with the divine. Pagan tradition was taken up by Christianity, for which St John, who baptised Jesus, acted as a special intermediary between man and God.