 What could be an iron bar, or door top, is to the left of the fitting.The Pasadena version also shows a fitting and change in colour.This suggests the paintings show the women leaving the prison where John was killed, to return with the head to the head to Herod's feast, a version of the story often shown in art, though not exactly following the gospel, in which a soldier presents the head on a dish to Herod, who gives it to Salome, who in turn gives it to her mother.