The story unfolds in reverse from right to left. In front of the table Salome is shown dancing, bent backwards with head almost touching the ground and hands supporting her at either side. The pose is deliberately provocative, as in the 15th century painting of the subject at Heydon. There is a trace of another figure in a horizontally striped garment at the far right; this might be a servant holding the charger in readiness - there are also faint traces of something that might be a large circular dish.

Painted below and shown at the right is the granting of Salome’s request for the head of the Baptist. At the left his own figure, bending in the arched doorway of what is presumably his prison, is very faint now, but his executioner, in the centre of the scene, is rather clearer. He has the grotesquely exaggerated facial features commonly found in paintings of the torture or execution of Christ and the saints, with a prominent nose and huge jutting chin. His right hand is raised for the death-stroke (virtually all trace of the sword has gone), and he might be grasping John by the hair with his left. Salome appears again, standing at the far right, holding the empty charger.

Salome was a byword for female lasciviousness in the Middle Ages¹ and her mother Herodias had become associated with witchcraft by the 15th century². Paintings of her dance in English churches are rare now, but all of those known to me (there is another and forthcoming example at Pickering) insist on its indecorous nature. These paintings, juxtaposed as they are with scenes from the Passion and from the Life of the Virgin, must have created a frisson of horror in the churchfolk of medieval Chalfont St. Giles.

Other paintings at Chalfont St. Giles include a Life and Miracles of the Virgin, and The Creation of the Animals/Fall & Expulsion from Eden, both now on the site. Others will be here in due course.

¹ Caesarius of Heisterbach, in a story about traffic in relics, specifically the arm of John the Baptist as “the price of fornication”, cites Salome - “a lascivious girl” - as an evil examplar; In Caesarius of Heisterbach, Distinctio V111, Cap. liii [quoted here from J. Krochalis & E. Peters, The World of Piers Plowman, University of Pennysylvania Press, 1975, p.155]
² Herodias is named, along with “Diana, a goddess of the pagans”, in the Malleus Maleficarum as a leader of those “wicked women, perverted by Satan, [who] believe and profess [that they] ride in the night-time on certain beasts...over immense tracts of land, and have to obey her in all things as their Mistress, etc.” J. Sprenger & H. Kramer, Malleus Maleficarum, 1486, Chapter 111, (trs. M. Summers, Folio Society, London,1968.)

St. Andrew Martyred, Stoke Dry, Rutland	St. Anne teaching the Virgin to read-Corby Glen, Lincolnshire	St. Antony and the Pig, Barton, Cambridgeshire	St. Barbara : Hessett, Suffolk	St. Bartholomew : Selling, Kent	St.Catherine of Alexandria, life of : Castor, Cambs	St.Catherine of Alexandria : Hardley Street, Norfolk
St.Catherine of Alexandria : Old Weston, Northants	St.Catherine of Alexandria : Pickering, N. Yorks	St.Catherine of Alexandria, life of : Sporle, Norfolk	St. Clement : South Leigh, Oxon.	St. Dunstan holding the Devil by the nose : Barton, Cambs	St.Edmund : Boxford, Suffolk	St. Edmund : Lakenheath, Suffolk
St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Bishopsbourne, Kent	St.Edmund, Martyrdom of : Fritton, Norfolk	St. Edmund (or St. Walstan) : Gisleham, Norfolk	St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Pickering, N.Yorks	St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Stoke Dry, Rutland	St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Troston, Suffolk	St. Edmund, Martyrdom of : Weare Giffard, Devon
St.Eloi, Broughton, Bucks	St. Eloi and the possessed horse, Slapton, Northants	St. Eloi, as bishop & blacksmith, Wensley, N.Yorks	St.Erasmus, Martyrdom of : Chippenham, Cambs	St. Etheldreda : Willingham, Cambs	St.Francis Preaching to the Birds : Wissington, Suffolk	St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata, Slapton, Northants
St. George & Dragon : Banningham, Norfolk	St. George & Dragon : Broughton, Bucks	St. George & Dragon : Earl Stonham, Suffolk	St. George & Dragon : Fritton, Norfolk	St. George & Dragon : Hornton, Oxon	St. George dedicating himself to the Virgin : Astbury, Cheshire	St. George, with the princess : Little Kimble, Bucks
St.Helena, Broughton, Bucks	St. Hubert, Miracle of : Idsworth, Hants	St.James the Great : Hales, Norfolk	Life of St. James, Stoke Orchard, Gloucestershire	St. James the Great, meeting pilgrims : Wisborough Green, Sussex	St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Chalfont St. Giles, Bucks	St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Heydon, Norfolk
St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Idsworth, Hampshire	St. John the Baptist, Martyrdom of : Old Weston, Northants	Life of St. John the Baptist : Cerne Abbas, Dorset NEW	St. John the Evangelist, Selling, Kent	St. John the Evangelist, Weston Longville, Norfolk	St. Margaret of Antioch : Old Weston, Northants	St. Margaret and the dragon : South Newington, Oxfordshire NEW
St. Margaret of Antioch Martyred, Stoke Dry, Rutland	St. Margaret of Antioch, Life of : Charlwood, Surrey	Life of St. Margaret, Wendens Ambo, Essex	St. Martin dividing his cloak, Chalgrave, Beds	St. Martin dividing his cloak, Wareham, Dorset	St.Nicholas of Myra, life of : Little Horwood, Bucks	St. Nicholas of Myra, two miracles of : Wissington, Suffolk
St.Paul : Black Bourton, Oxon	St. Paul : Beckley, Oxon	St. Peter : Beckley, Oxon	St.Peter : Black Bourton, Oxon	St. Peter, Martyrdom of : Chacombe, Northants	St. Roch : Pinvin, Worcs	St. Sexburga? : Willingham, Cambs
St. Stephen, Stoning of: Black Bourton, Oxon	St. Stephen, Stoning of: Catfield, Norfolk	St.Swithun (?) enthroned : Old Weston, Northants	Scenes from the life of St. Swithun : Corhampton, Hampshire NEW	St. Thomas Becket, blessing, Hauxton, Cambs.	St. Thomas Becket, Murder of, Marston Magna, Somerset	St.Thomas Becket, Murder of : South Burlingham, Norfolk
St. Thomas Becket, Murder of : South Newington, Oxfordshire	St. Walstan of Bawburgh? or St. Edmund : Gisleham, Norfolk	St. Zita : Horley, Oxon	St. Zita : Shorthampton, Oxon	Unidentified female saint : Heydon

20/12/2003