Salome and the Head of John the Baptist

When this panel entered the collection of Prince William V in The Hague in 1775, it was catalogued as the work of Timoteo da Urbino, an Italian painter from Raphael's circle. The name stuck for at least 18 years. The painter had in fact signed it in plain sight, in the sky. On the little banner floating among the clouds are the date 1524, the initial of Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, his house mark and a letter A, read as Amsterdam. Salome holds the head of John the Baptist on a wide metal dish, calmly, in a fashionable jewelled cap, with a quiet river landscape behind her. In 1795 the French confiscated the prince's paintings and took them to Paris, and this one came back to The Hague in 1815. It belongs to the Mauritshuis, which has lent it to the Rijksmuseum since 1948.