Herod's Banquet

This mural is based on a painting in the Prado Museum in Madrid by Bartholomaus Strobel, "The Banquet of Herod with the Beheading of John the Baptist". A feast with 65 people around the head of John the Baptists, but here we have Juan Paulo's head. Strobell, a fairly unknown painter today, was commissioned to paint the hoy paloy of his day, and though many of the individuals pictured in the original are unremembered, there are hidden signs that represent some of their dramatic past. This mural was painted as an escape from composition, opening out onto a distant landscape. This is a jewel of a room, a delight for the client and dinner guests alike.

The marble table, with various items painted on top of and below, is painted into the wall, disappearing into the mural.