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This sculpture is called the Head of Saint John the Baptist on a Platter. What it literally depicts is the model of Saint John the Baptist’s head sitting on top of a platter. What this sculpture denotes is the symbolic story of Saint John the Baptist’s murder. According to the Bible, John is taken as a prisoner in Machaerus, where he condemned the king’s marriage to his wife as illegal, because she was married to the king’s brother previously. Later on, the king’s wife’s daughter requested that John’s head be placed on a platter. The piece is really a personification of their desire to kill Saint John the Baptist, specifically the queen’s daughter. It definitely carries a biblical meaning at its face value but also has connotation to the saying “head on a platter”. In terms of what I could do to distort this sculpture, my immediate thought would be to change his facial expression to something more extreme such as a large grin. I thought that this could potentially change its sinister meaning a bit. In addition, I thought of creating horns protruding from his head as a reference to the devil since it is a biblical piece. To distort his smile I would have to select the endpoints of his mouth and bend it upward and for the horns, it would have to be a protrusion coming from his head.
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