Bound (Salome)

Inspired by Baroque masters like Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi, American artist Jesse Mockrin reinterprets biblical and mythological narratives by redirecting our attention. Her precisely-cropped drawings focus on select elements of the compositions she re-renders, subverting canonical storylines and emphasizing overlooked details like hand gestures and the pull of drapery. In Salome (Bound), Mockrin references the Morgan's own An Executioner Presenting Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (1983.2) by 17th century Dutch artist Jan van Linteloo, centering Salome's hands as she holds aloft a tray bearing John the Baptist's severed head. A tangle of drapery binds her hands, suggesting that both Salome and John are mutually trapped by their own legacies: Salome through her guilt, and John by his mortality.