Trombonist in 16C Feast of Herod Painting

The feast of Herod, featuring the beheading of John the Baptist, is a relatively popular subject in religious art, including a sculpture by Donatello and a painting by Rubens, among others. The depictions can get fairly gory! The example below, which features John the Baptist on the bottom-left, includes a trombone player, apparently serving as one of Herod’s court musicians. I recently found a color version of the image and updated the caption with museum information. You can view the picture in historical context in the 16th century of the Trombone History Timeline.

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c. 1580—Innsbruck, Austria: An anonymous painting etitled Gastmahl des Herodes depicts a trio of instrumentalists that includes trombone, performing under a porchlike structure in the background (see detail and full image below; public domain) (Salmen, Bilder 36; Innsbruck, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum). The painting is probably a copy of an image from 1516 (thus the date on the lower-middle of the painting itself).bilder 36 color dtlbilder 36 color