Italian, 'Saint John the Baptist', probably 1640-60
About the work
Overview
A young man wearing only an animal skin is illuminated against a dark rock, leaning forward to drink water trickling from a spring. With one hand he props himself up on the rock and with the other he holds a reed cross – an attribute which identifies him as Saint John the Baptist, the desert hermit who foretold the coming of Christ.
This painting was once attributed to Caravaggio, or to one of his followers, but it was probably painted in the mid-seventeenth century in Rome. Caravaggio painted a number of pictures of the Baptist as an adolescent, including a scene of him leaning on a rock and drinking directly from a spring, of which numerous copies and variants exist, attesting to its popularity in the seventeenth century. Although not directly related to that composition, our painting’s tight crop, dramatic lighting and naturalistic rendering of the Baptist’s body are all ultimately inspired by Caravaggio’s example.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Saint John the Baptist
- Artist
- Italian
- Date made
- probably 1640-60
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 77.8 × 62.3 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bequeathed by Dame Joan Evans, 1979
- Inventory number
- NG6455
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Frame
- 17th-century English Frame
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Michael Levey, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
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1925O. Sitwell et al., Italian Art of the Seventeenth Century (exh. cat. Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1925), London 1925
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1950G. Kelly and E.K. Waterhouse, Works by Holbein and other Masters of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, (exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, 1950-1951), London 1950
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1980National Gallery, The National Gallery Report: January 1978 - December 1979, London 1980
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1986Levey, Michael, National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1986
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1990B. Nicolson and L. Vertova, Caravaggism in Europe, 2nd edn, Turin 1990
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1993M. Gregori, 'Il San Giovannino alla sorgente del Caravaggio', Paragone, XXXIV, 1993, pp. 3-20
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2000G. Papi, 'Brevi note al Vermiglio caravaggesco', Paragone, XXIX/599, 2000, pp. 26-37
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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.