Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 'The Infant Saint John with the Lamb', 1660-5
About the work
Overview
Saint John the Baptist stands in a rocky landscape, a reference to the wilderness in which he lived as a young man, dressed in a camel-hair tunic and eating only locusts and honey.
He embraces a lamb, a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice, and points towards heaven. According to the Gospel, when Saint John met Christ he declared: ‘Behold, the Lamb of God’. These words are inscribed in Latin on a ribbon wound around a reed cross, one of Saint John’s attributes (a symbolic object associated with him).
The lamb is also a symbol of Christ as the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep – as Christ is believed to have done for humanity’s salvation.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Infant Saint John with the Lamb
- Artist
- Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
- Artist dates
- 1617 - 1682
- Date made
- 1660-5
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 165 × 106 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1840
- Inventory number
- NG176
- Location
- Room 30
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 17th-century Spanish Frame
Provenance
No. 176 and the Rothschild Good Shepherd were in the collection of the Comte de Lassay († 1750), which passed in part to the Comte de la Guiche; la Guiche sale, Paris, 4–6 March, 1771 (lot 13; 13,000 francs the pair), bought by Donjeux. They were afterwards in the Aranc (Harene) de Presle sale, Paris, 16–24 April, 1792 (lot 7) and the Citoyen Robit sale, Paris, 11 May sqq. 1801 (lot 60; 40,650 francs the pair), bought by Paillet for Bryan. Together with other pictures from the Robit collection, they were exhibited for sale by Bryan in London, November, 1801–May, 1802 (nos. 13 and 27), and sold to Sir Simon Clarke, who exhibited them at the British Institution, 1816 (nos. 71 and 76) and 1838 (nos. 5 and 11). At the Clarke sale, London, 8/9 May, 1840, the two pictures were separated, the S. John (lot 109; £2,100) being bought by Lord Ashburton, who ceded it a few days later to the National Gallery.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised by Allan Braham, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School’, London 1988; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2012Murillo and Justino de Neve: The Art of FriendshipMuseo Nacional del Prado26 June 2012 - 30 September 2012Fundación Focus-Abengoa9 October 2012 - 20 January 2013Dulwich Picture Gallery6 February 2013 - 19 May 2013
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2020Masterpieces from the National Gallery, LondonThe National Museum of Western Art18 June 2020 - 18 October 2020The National Museum of Art3 November 2020 - 31 January 2021
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2021Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, LondonNational Gallery of Australia5 March 2021 - 14 June 2021
Bibliography
-
1801Michael Bryan's Gallery, A Catalogue of the Celebrated Assemblage of Capital Pictures: Bought from Paris, Principally from Mr Robit's Famous Collection, London, 6 November 1801
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1801Paillet, Catalogue d'une collection de tableaux de grands maîtres des trois écoles, Paris, 11 May 1801 - 18 May 1801
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1824W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting: With a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England Since the French Revolution, London 1824
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1840Christie & Manson, A Catalogue of the Very Celebrated Gallery of Pictures of the Late Sir Simon H. Clarke, Bart. Removed from Oakhill, Herts, London, 8 May 1840 - 9 May 1840
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1842Mrs Jameson, A Handbook to the Public Galleries of Art in and Near London, London 1842
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1913A. Mayer, Murillo, Stuttgart 1913
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1926A.L. Mayer, 'Three Paintings by Murillo', The Burlington Magazine, XLVIII/278, 1926, pp. 250-3
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1952Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, London 1952
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1969D. Angulo Íñiguez, 'Las pinturas de Murillo, de Santa Maria la Blanca', Archivo español de arte, CLXV, 1969, pp. 13-42
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1970N. MacLaren and A. Braham, The Spanish School, 2nd edn, London 1970
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1976C. Brown, Art in Seventeenth Century Holland (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 30 September - 12 December 1976), London 1976
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1978J.A. Gaya Nuño, L'opera completa di Murillo, Milan 1978
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1981D.A. Íñiguez, Murillo. Su vida, su arte, su obra, Madrid 1981
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1981E. Young, 'Murillo: The Definitive Monograph: Review: Diego Angulo Íñiguez, Murillo. Su Vida, su arte, su obra, 1981', Apollo, CXIV/236, 1981, pp. 255-7
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1981A. Braham, El Greco to Goya: The Taste for Spanish Paintings in Britain and Ireland (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 16 September - 9 November 1981), London 1981
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1982E. Harris, 'Murillo en Inglaterra', Goya, 1982, pp. 169-71
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1982M.B. Mena Marqués and E. Valdivieso, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo 1617-1682 (exh. cat. Museo Nacional del Prado, 8 October - 12 December 1982; Royal Academy of Arts, 15 January - 27 March 1983), Madrid 1982
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1987E. Harris, 'Velásquez and Murillo in Nineteenth Century Britain: An Approach Through Prints', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, L, 1987, pp. 148-59
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1988Maclaren, Neil, revised by Allan Braham, National Gallery Catalogues: The Spanish School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1988
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1989M. de los S. García Felguera, La fortuna de Murillo (1682-1900), Seville 1989
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1996J. Edwards, Alexandre-Joseph Paillet: Expert et marchand de tableaux à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, Paris 1996
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1999G. Perry and C. Cunningham (eds), Academies, Museums and Canons of Art, London 1999
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2005J.-L. Augé, Murillo: Peintre de la douceur, Dossier de l'art 115, Dijon 005
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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