Giovanni di Paolo, 'The Baptism of Christ: Predella Panel', 1454
About the work
Overview
Christ stands in a river, the water up to his waist. John the Baptist pours a cup of water over his head, baptising him. As he does, God the Father appears in the sky, surrounded by angels, while a dove, the symbol of the Holy Ghost, descends towards Christ in golden rays.
The scene reflects John’s report of the event found in the Gospel of John: ‘I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him.’
The artist was inspired by the Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti, who made two sculpted scenes of Christ’s baptism in bronze. The symmetry of this scene resembles the one that Ghiberti made to decorate the doors of the Florence Baptistery. The poses and gestures look like those in the scene Ghiberti made for a baptismal font in Siena – where Giovanni di Paolo worked.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Baptism of Christ: Predella Panel
- Artist
- Giovanni di Paolo
- Artist dates
- active by 1417; died 1482
- Part of the series
- Baptist Predella
- Date made
- 1454
- Medium and support
- egg tempera on wood
- Dimensions
- 31 × 45 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought with a contribution from the Art Fund, 1944
- Inventory number
- NG5451
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 15th-century Sienese Frame with Later Interventions (original frame)
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Dillian Gordon, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings’, vol. 1, London 2003; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
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1897B. Berenson, The Central Italian Painters of the Renaissance, New York 1897
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1918G. de Nicola, 'The Masterpiece of Giovanni di Paolo', The Burlington Magazine, XXXIII, 1918, pp. 45-54
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1937J. Pope-Hennessy, Giovanni di Paolo, London 1937
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1938R.L. Douglas, 'Review: John Pope-Hennessy, Giovanni di Paolo, London, 1937', The Burlington Magazine, LXXII, 1938, pp. 43-7
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1938H.F. MacKenzie, 'Panels by Giovanni di Paolo of Siena (1403-1483)', Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, XXXII/7, 1938, pp. 106-9
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1938J. Pope-Hennessy, 'Letter in Reply to Robert Langton Douglas' Review of His Book', The Burlington Magazine, LXXII, 1938
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1941C. Brandi, 'Giovanni di Paolo', Le arti, 1941, pp. 316-41
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1944P. Bacci, Documenti e commenti per la storia dell'arte, Florence 1944
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1947P. Hendy, An Exhibition of Cleaned Pictures of 1947: (1936-1947), London 1947
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1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
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1955The National Gallery, The National Gallery: 1938 - 1954, London 1955
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1974M. Meiss, 'A New Pannel by Giovanni di Paolo from His Altar-Piece of John the Baptist', The Burlington Magazine, CXVI/851, 1974, pp. 73-7
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1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
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1986P. Pieper, Die deutschen, niederländischen und italienischen Tafelbilder bis um 1530, Münster 1986
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1987J. Pope-Hennessy, The Robert Lehman Collection, 1: Italian Paintings, New York 1987
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1988J. Pope-Hennessy, 'Giovanni di Paolo', Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, XLVI/2, 1988, pp. 6-48
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1988K. Christiansen, L. Kanter and C.B. Strehlke, Painting in Renaissance Siena 1420-1500 (exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 20 December 1988 - 19 March 1989), New York 1988
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1989Norton Simon Museum, Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena 1989
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1991J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
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1996M. Rohlmann, 'Botticellis "Primavera": Zu Anlaß, Adressat und Funktion von mythologischen Gemälden im florentiner Quattrocento', Artibus et historiae, XVII/33, 1996, pp. 97-132
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1997J. Willats, Art and Representation: New Principles in the Analysis of Pictures, Princeton 1997
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1998E. Klein, E. Gordon and K. French, 'Stylistic, Technical and Material Developments in the Paintings of Giovanni di Paolo', in A. Roy and P. Smith (eds), Painting Techniques: History, Materials and Studio Practice: Contributions to the Dublin Congress 7-11 September 1998, London 1998, pp. 82-8
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2000A. Sturgis, Telling Time (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 8 October 2000 - 14 January 2001), London 2000
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2003Gordon, Dillian, National Gallery Catalogues: The Fifteenth Century Italian Paintings, 1, London 2003
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2003T. Hyman, Sienese Painting: The Art of a City Republic (1278-1477), London 2003
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2005M. O'Malley, The Business of Art: Contracts and the Commissioning Process in Renaissance Italy, New Haven 2005
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2007A. Imbert, 'Byzance dans la peinture siennoise: Tradition et ruptures', Revue de l'art, 158, 2007, pp. 53-61
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2007L. Syson et al., Renaissance Siena: Art for a City (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 24 October 2007 - 13 January 2008), London 2007
Frame
This panel, along with a further three panels in the National Gallery’s collection, originally formed the predella of a polyptych and were painted on a continuous piece of wood, arranged in chronological order of the narrative from left to right. Each panel in the series retains original framing elements to varying degrees. The scenes on the predella were probably separated by borders like those featuring painted floral designs seen on Saint John the Baptist retiring to the Desert.
No original mouldings remain. Everything is modern, copying the original mouldings on other parts of the predella. The frame was probably regilded in 1944.
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
About the series: Baptist Predella
Overview
These four panels once formed part of a predella, the lowest part of an altarpiece. Together they tell the story of the life of John the Baptist, the prophet who preached the coming of Christ as the Messiah.
Events run from left to right like a comic strip. At the far left edge was a scene showing John’s birth, followed by his departure into the wilderness and then the baptism of Christ – the main event in John’s life. Another panel, which may have shown John preaching in the wilderness, would have followed, but this did not enter the National Gallery’s collection with the other panels and we don't know where it is now. The final scene shows the saint after his execution.
The predella was probably part of an polyptych (a multi-panelled altarpiece) made by Giovanni di Paolo for the Augustinian church in Cortona.
Works in the series
More works by Giovanni di Paolo
