MARINARI, Onorio

(b. 1627 Firenze, d. 1715 Firenze)

Italian painter, the son of a minor painter, Sigismondo di Pietro Marinari, from whom he received his first tuition, and the cousin of Carlo Dolci, whose best pupil he became. Sources mention him assisting Dolci in the later 1650s. While he remained capable of imitating closely his master’s style, he was later influenced by Pignone and Furini. He executed a number of altarpieces for Florentine churches and his fresco in the Palazzo Capponi, Florence, is dated 1707. In 1674 he published his illustrated Fabbrica ed uso dell’ Annulo Astronomico. A self-portrait in the Uffizi shows him aged eighty-two in 1709. He died in Florence on 5 January 1715. There are few signed or documented works, and Marinari’s oeuvre has still to be clearly defined.

Judith with the Head of Holofernes

The pendant of the painting representing Salome with the head of the Baptist is also in the Budapest museum. The two paintings mark a perceptive continuation of the style of Carlo Dolci, Marinari’s teacher and cousin, but interpreted in a luminist vein reminiscent of Pietro da Cortona.

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Salome with the Head of the Baptist

The pendant of the painting representing Judith with the head of Holofernes is also in the Budapest museum.

The biblical source for the painting is Matthew 14:6-11 or Mark 6:21-8, where the daughter of Herodias danced for her stepfather, Herod, on his birthday. As a reward he promised her anything she wanted and, prompted by her mother, she chose the head of Saint John the Baptist, which she then carried to Herodias on a silver charger. The daughter subsequently became known in literature as Salome, and the theme was memorably treated in the nineteenth century by Richard Strauss and Oscar Wilde amongst others.

You can view other depictions of Salome with the Head of John the Baptist.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 15 minutes):

Richard Strauss: Salome, closing scene

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