La testa di san Giovanni Battista presentata a Salomè

Rubens painted this just after coming home. He had spent eight years in Italy, in Rome, Venice and Mantua, absorbing Titian's colour and the new Roman appetite for raw, close-up drama, and in 1608 he returned to Antwerp for good. The next year the city signed a truce that paused its long war with the Dutch, and Rubens became court painter to the archdukes and opened the studio that would soon supply half of Europe. Italy is still fresh in his hands here. He tells the grisly story of Salome at arm's length, catching the moment just after the sword, the Baptist's head carried in on a platter while the figures crowd the shallow front of the panel. It is one of the first pictures of his long Antwerp career.