The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

The Feast of Herod (recto) Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus (verso)

c. 1637–38

Peter Paul Rubens

(Flemish, 1577–1640)
Flanders
pen and brown ink, with black and red chalk, touched with white gouache
Sheet: 27.2 x 47.2 cm (10 11/16 x 18 9/16 in.); Secondary Support: 27.6 x 47.3 cm (10 7/8 x 18 5/8 in.)
Delia E. Holden and L. E. Holden Funds 1954.2
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The two stories that Rubens depicted on the front and back of this sheet of paper each feature a gruesome death, the result of revenge at the hands of a powerful woman.

Description

Peter Paul Rubens had a large studio in Antwerp and used drawing to prepare for large paintings as well as to direct the many pupils who assisted him. Striking in its immediacy, the drawing on the recto of this sheet of paper is a preparatory study for the Feast of Herod painting now at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. Herod, wearing a large cap and wrapped in a mantle, shrinks back in horror as Salome uncovers a charger that holds the head of Saint John the Baptist. Smiling, Herodias grabs the platter with her left hand and, in a chilling detail, gestures toward the charger with a fork. Rubens wrote what is usually interpreted as “Herodias somewhat higher” at the top of the sheet. The verso of the sheet depicts a sketch for another story featuring a change of fortune at the hands of a vengeful woman, Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus. Rubens made two paintings of the subject (now in Paris and Boston). A rare theme, the story tells of Queen Tomyris who, avenging the death of her son in battle, collects the head of his murderer Cyrus in a bag of human blood. Tomyris is shown seated under a canopy holding a scepter, while the servants before her handle Cyrus’s head. Rubens wrote “plus spatij” (more space) in the center of the sheet.
  • ca. 1800-1900
    Unidentified collector, probably Austria (Lugt 622)
    ca. 1900-1953
    Private collection, England
    1953
    with Herbert N. Bier, London
    1954-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Johnson, Mark M. Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 29-32
    Francis, Henry. "The Preliminary Pen and Ink Drawing for the 'Feast of Herod' nu Peter Paul Rubens." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 41, no. 6 (June 1954): 124-127. Reproduced: p. 114, 127; Mentioned: p. 124 www.jstor.org
    Burchard, Ludwig, "Rubens' 'Feast of Herod' at Port Sunlight," Burlington Magazine Vol. XCV No 609 (December 1953):pp 383-387. p. 387
    Held, Julius S. "Rubens' 'Feast of Herod'." The Burlington Magazine 96, no. 613 (1954): 122. p. 122 871368.
    Fogg Art Museum. Drawings & Oil Sketches by P.P. Rubens, from American Collections. Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; New York, NY: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1956. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 25-26, no. 26, pl. 26
    Burchard, Ludwig and Roger Adolf d' Hulst. Tekeningen van P.P. Rubens. Antwerpen: Uitgeverij Ontwikkeling, 1956. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 107-8, no. 131, pl. 59
    Held, Julius S., "Drawings and Oil Sketches by Rubens from American Collections," Burlington Magazine XCVII/637 (April 1956): pp. 123-125. p. 124, fig 34 (verso)
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 587, 588 archive.org
    Held, Julius S. Rubens: Selected Drawings. London: Phaidon Press, 1959. I:p. 124, no. 67, pl. 77
    Burchard, Ludwig, and Roger Adolf d' Hulst. Rubens Drawings. Brussels: Arcade Press, 1963. I:313-316, no. 196, 2:pl. 196r (rect), 196v (verso)
    Jaffé, Michael, "Cleveland Museum of Art, The Figurative Arts of the West, ca. 1400-1800," Apollo LXXVIII (Dec. 1963): pp. 457-467. p. 466
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 119 archive.org
    Hofstede, Justus Muller. Review, "L. Burchard and R.-A. d'Hulst: Rubens Drawings," Master Drawings Vol. IV No. 4 (1966): pp. 435-454. pp. 436, 454
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 119 archive.org
    Logan, Anne-Marie. ""Two Armored Soldiers Fighting", a Late Drawing by Peter Paul Rubens." Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin 34, no. 1 (1972): 16-18. p.18 40482375.
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    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 154 archive.org
    Thompson, Colin and Hugh Brigstocke. Shorter Catalogue. National Gallery of Scotland. 1978. p. 93 under no. 2193
    Berger, Robert W., "Rubens's 'Queen Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus'," MFA Bulletin Vol 77 (1979):PP. 4-35 pp. 24-25
    Schloder, John E. Baroque Imagery. exh.cat. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1984. no. 17, pp. 43-44.
    Logan, Anne-Marie S. Flemish Drawings in the Age of Rubens: Selected Works from American Collections. Wellesley, MA: Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, 1993. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 203-5, no. 58
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Diane DeGrazia, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000. Mentioned: P. 174-75, 294; Reproduced: P. 175, cat. no. 71
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  • {{cite web|title=The Feast of Herod (recto) Tomyris with the Head of Cyrus (verso)|url=false|author=Peter Paul Rubens|year=c. 1637–38|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1954.2