Bronze statuary group, with gilded parts, depicting the Beheading of John the Baptist in three figures in larger than life size, created by Vincenzo Danti in 1571 to decorate the external wall above the southern entrance to the Baptistery. The group concludes the sixteenth-century program of renewal of the sculptural decorations of the external overdoors of the Baptistery, centered on the life of the patron saint of Florence and titular of the church. In 2006 the group was, for conservation reasons, definitively removed from the Baptistery and entrusted to the restoration of the Opificio della Pietre Dure, which completed it in 2008 and since 2015 it has been preserved in the Sala del Paradiso ot he Museum, where it was reunited with the South Door by Andrea Pisano. Vincenzo Danti had first been entrusted with the task of completing the Baptism of Christ by Andrea Sansovino above the east door and then in 1570 he obtained the task of creating the statuary group above the southern entrance of the Baptistery. The processing of the three sculptures took place very quickly, the sculptural group was placed close to the feast of the Patron Saint, 22 June 1571. Technically the fusion appears to be of extraordinary perfection and the style fully belongs to the Florentine one of the time, where the careful study of anatomy, of the movements of the body and face and, through them, also of the soul is contained by a cold and idealizing drawing perfection. The work illustrates the episode narrated by the Gospels of the death of Saint John the Baptist: after he was imprisoned for having openly denounced King Herod's adultery with his sister-in-law Herodias. Driven by the desire for revenge, Herodias instigates her daughter Salome to seduce the king so that he agrees to the beheading of the Baptist. Danti shows the executioner ready to deliver the fatal blow, while Salome stands on the left, partly frightened and partly cruelly waiting for her head to roll so she can place it on a tray and take it to her mother Herodias. The calm and courageous acceptance of the saint's pose, awaiting martyrdom, contrasts with the disturbance of Herodias' anger and horror and the ferocity of the executioner. On the bases of the figures there are bas-reliefs with figures alluding to the character above: under the Baptist we recognize the personifications of the three theological virtues, under Salome scholars have recognized the allegory of Lust, while under the executioner that of Intemperance.