The Head of St. John the Baptist on a Charger Aelbert Bouts Netherlandish This grisly depiction of John the Baptist’s severed head was once an extremely popular image, due to the saint’s growing cult in the Middle Ages. The panel is one of more than twenty versions produced through the transfer of the design from a common workshop pattern in the circles of Dieric Bouts and his son Aelbert. The mimetic potential of oil painting is used here to create the illusion of a real head on a real platter.