The Beheading of the Baptist

Created between 1477 and 1480, this relief may be found to the right of the altar of St. John. The illusionist perspective and the luminous dynamic flow of the action to be seen in Pollajolo’s relief have been exchanged for a refined, conceptual relationship between the space and the characters, a stylistic and not naturalistic vision. “The imperious ankylosis of a gesture” according to Brandi, carried to its maximum of gesticulating tension creating many distinct nuclei of blocked energy that scatter in various directions within the enclosed space.