Piero della Francesca, 'The Baptism of Christ', probably about 1437–1445

The Baptism of Christ

Piero della Francesca

Not on display

About the work

Overview

Piero was the first artist to write a treatise on perspective – that is, creating an illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface. Here, he has painted objects in proportion, so that they appear as we see them in real life. This emphasises the depth of the landscape, but also the harmony of the figures and natural features within it.

Christ stands in a shallow, winding stream as John the Baptist pours a small bowl of water over his head. Three angels in colourful robes witness the event. At this very moment the voice of God was heard – ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased’ (Matthew 3: 16) – and the Holy Ghost, shown here as a dove flying over Christ’s head and towards us, descended upon him.

This painting was made for the church of San Giovanni Battista in Val d’Afra in Piero’s hometown, Borgo Sansepolcro.

In-depth

This is the earliest surviving work by the innovative Tuscan painter, Piero della Francesca. Very few of his works survive, but there are three in our collection. Here, Piero used mathematical principles to order his simple design, creating a visually harmonious image, and set it within a landscape familiar to its original viewers, uniting them personally with this moment in the history of Christianity.

Christ stands in a shallow, winding stream as Saint John the Baptist reaches up to pour a small bowl of water over his head. We can see the water trickling over Christ’s hair onto his forehead. Three angels, with colourful robes and multicoloured wings, witness the event; two of them hold hands while one leans amiably on his companion’s shoulder.

John had been preaching in the wilderness, encouraging people to repent of their sins and to be baptised: the river’s water symbolised the washing away of sin. In the background a man bends over as he takes off his tunic in preparation for his turn. When Christ came to John asking to be baptised, the latter initially refused: as the Son of God, Christ was already sinless. Christ’s insistence was an expression of his humanity and humility. It was at this moment, though, that his divinity was announced. According to the Gospels, the voice of God declared, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased’ (Matthew 3: 16) and the Holy Ghost descended upon Christ in the form of a dove. Piero has shown the dove as though flying out of the picture towards us. The angel wearing a garland of roses gasps – the only sign of commotion in the picture.

Christ’s baptism, as recorded in the Gospels, was likely to have involved full immersion in the river Jordan, but it was more usually depicted like this. The mirror-like surface of the water in the distance reflects the wooded mountains, the glassy effect contrasting with the otherwise chalky look of the egg tempera paint Piero used. Curiously, the water seems to stop flowing at Christ’s feet – we see the pebbles of the riverbed in the foreground of the picture instead. Piero may have been inviting us to imagine we are standing in the river, looking straight through the clear water.

Piero made this picture for the church of San Giovanni Battista in Val d’Afra in his hometown of Borgo Sansepolcro – the walls and turrets in the distance are probably supposed to represent the town. The valley setting resembles the landscape around the town encouraging worshippers to imagine the extraordinary moment occurring on their doorstep. The mountains in the distance, the stream and the walnut tree were features of the local landscape. According to legend, the town had links with Christ’s homeland from its origin in the eleventh century. A miracle occurred when two pilgrims travelling back from the Holy Land decided to rest beneath a walnut tree: when they woke up, their knapsack containing holy relics had flown up to one of the tree’s highest branches. This miraculous event led to the town’s foundation, which was named after the pilgrims’ relic of a stone from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Piero included a variety of species of plants which are still native to the area today, and which would have been instantly recognisable to the painting’s very first viewers.

What should we make of the tiny figures – singled out by their large, unusually shaped hats – just beyond the bend in the river? They might be intended to represent the three wise men from ‘the East’ who, guided by a star, visited the newborn Christ to offer him gifts. The feast of the Epiphany, which celebrated the event, was held on 6 January, the same day that Christ’s baptism was celebrated. The people of Sansepolcro would have recognised these headdresses as Byzantine: in the same decade as this picture was made, Greeks from Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, came to Italy to attend the councils which attempted to unite the eastern Orthodox and western Catholic Church. Artists took the opportunity to sketch the foreign visitors, and they began to find their way into Italian paintings as symbols of the East.

As well as rooting the scene in the local area, Piero also uses mathematics to make it look convincingly three-dimensional. Piero – whose father had hoped he would become a merchant, like him – was thoroughly trained in mathematics. He was the first artist to write a treaty on perspective, De prospectiva pingendi, using mathematics to explain how to paint objects in proportion so that they appear in the painting as they are seen in real life. Here he used a grid structure as a guide for the placement and scale of objects. The layering of the elements of this picture – the angels occupy a space between two trees, and the man removing his gown is set between the distant figures in their elaborate headdresses and John the Baptist – echoes this invisible grid. The figures, carefully placed behind one another and gradually getting smaller, lead us into the painting, as does the river that winds away from us. In this way, Piero emphasised the depth of the landscape and the harmony of the figures and natural features within it.

The visual harmony which comes from the figures and features seeming to inhabit the landscape so naturally is one reason that the picture seems to instil a sense of calm. Piero gave the figures, particularly Christ and John, graceful poses: both appear mindful of their bodies and actions, encouraging us too to find stillness in our contemplation. He has directed our gaze to Christ’s body, the anchor of the scene, reinforcing this through the strict alignment of the dove, the bowl and Christ’s praying hands. This vertical line is doubly strengthened by the pale trunk of the walnut tree, which matches Christ’s white flesh.

At some point in the 1460s the panel was joined by two side panels, pilasters and a predella with gilded backgrounds, painted by Matteo di Giovanni, another local artist.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Baptism of Christ
Artist: Piero della Francesca
Artist dates: about 1415/20 - 1492
Date made: probably about 1437–1445
Medium and support: egg tempera on wood
Dimensions: 167 × 116 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1861
Inventory number: NG665
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 19th-century English Frame

Provenance

Stated to have been the centre piece of a triptych, of which the rest is by Matteo di Giovanni, on the high-altar of the Priory of S. Giovanni Battista at Sansepolcro. This priory was suppressed in 1808. No. 665 and the surrounding pieces of the altarpiece were hung in the Sacristy of the Cathedral (S. Giovanni Evangelista) at Sansepolcro. No. 665 was bought from the Bishop and Chapter in 1859 by Sir J. C. Robinson on behalf of Matthew Uzielli. On loan at the South Kensington Museum, 1860/1. Purchased at the Uzielli Sale, London, 13 April, 1861 (lot 184).

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2010

Frederick Cayley Robinson: Acts of Mercy

The National Gallery (London)

14 July 2010 - 17 October 2010
2024

Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look

The National Gallery (London)

8 August 2024 - 27 October 2024

Bibliography

1832

G. Mancini, Istruzione storico-pittorica per visitare le chiese e palazzi di Città di Castello, Perugia 1832
1860

J.C. Robinson, Catalogue of the Various Works of Art Forming the Collection of Matthew Uzielli, London 1860
1875

S. Colvin, 'Piero della Francesca', Cornhill Magazine, XXXI, 1875, pp. 167-83
1903

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, Umbria, Florence and Siena, from the Second to the Sixteenth Century, ed. R.L. Douglas, 2nd edn, 6 vols, London 1903
1905

M. Logan, 'Due dipinti inediti di Matteo da Siena', Rassegna d'arte, V, 1905, pp. 49-53
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1951

K. Clark, Piero della Francesca, London 1951
1952

H. Focillon, Piero della Francesca, Paris 1952
1961

M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
1963

C. Tolnay, 'Conceptions religieuses dans la peinture de Piero della Francesca', Arte antica e moderna, XXIII, 1963, pp. 213-5
1968

C. Gilbert, Change in Piero della Francesca, New York 1968
1968

P. Hendy, Piero della Francesca and the Early Renaissance, London 1968
1972

M.C. Tanner, 'Concordia in Piero della Francesca's Baptism of Christ', Art Quarterly, XXXV, 1972, pp. 1-20
1977

E. Agnoletti, La Madonna della Misericordia e il Battesimo di Cristo di Piero della Francesca, Sansepolcro 1977
1979

M. Salmi, La pittura di Piero della Francesca, Novara 1979
1980

R. Longhi, Piero della Francesca: 1927 Con aggiunte fino al 1962, Florence 1980
1980

R. Cocke, 'Piero della Francesca and the Development of Italian Landscape Painting', The Burlington Magazine, CXXII/930, 1980, pp. 627-31
1981

M.A. Lavin, Piero Della Francesca's Baptism of Christ, New York 1981
1981

J. Hoffman, 'Piero della Francesca's "Flagellationˮ: A Reading from Jewish History', Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, XLIV, 1981, pp. 340-57
1982

C. Ginzburg, Indagini su Piero: Il Battesimo, il ciclo di Arezzo, la Flagellazione di Urbino, Turin 1982
1984

P. Scapecchi, 'Tu celebras burgi iam cuncta per oppida nomen: Appunti per Piero della Francesca', Arte Cristiana, LXXII/703, 1984, pp. 209-21
1985

M. Baxandall, Patterns of Intention: On the Historical Explanation of Pictures, New Haven 1985
1985

C. Ginzburg, The Enigma of Piero, London 1985
1985

M. Bussagli, 'Il "Battesimo di Londra" di Piero della Francesca: Per una rilettura in chiave trinitaria', Quaderni medievali, XX/10, 1985, pp. 28-65
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1989

A. Paolucci, Piero della Francesca. Notizie sulla conservazione di Margherita Moriondo Lenzini, Florence 1989
1990

A. Janhsen, Perspektivregeln und Bildgestaltung bei Piero della Francesca, Munich 1990
1991

B. Cole, Piero della Francesca: Tradition and Innovation in Renaissance Art, New York 1991
1991

J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
1991

E. Marino, Il 'Diluvio' di Paolo Uccello in S. Maria Novella ed il Concilio di Firenze (1439-1443): Saggio d'iconoteologia storica, Pistoia 1991
1991

J. Elkins, 'The Case Against Surface Geometry', Art History, XIV/2, 1991, pp. 143-74
1991

C. Pizzorusso, 'Sul "Battesimo" di Piero della Francesca', Artista, III, 1991, pp. 122-33
1992

E. Battisti, Piero della Francesca, Milan 1992
1992

C. Bertelli, Piero della Francesca, New Haven 1992
1992

R. Lightbown, Piero della Francesca, New York 1992
1992

F. Gnädinger, 'The Case Against Surface Geometry. Letter in Response to James Elkins' Article', Art History, XV/3, 1992, pp. 399-402
1993

D. Franklin, 'The Identity of a Perugian Follower of Piero della Francesca', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXV/1086, 1993, pp. 625-7
1994

L. Cheles, 'Piero della Francesca in Nineteenth-Century Britain', The Italianist, XIV, 1994, pp. 231-8
1995

M. Calvesi, 'La Flagellazione nel quadro storico del convegno di Mantova e dei progetti di Mattia Corvino', Studies in the History of Art, XLVIII, 1995, pp. 114-25
1995

J. Shearman, 'Refraction and Reflection', Studies in the History of Art, XLVIII, 1995, pp. 212-21
1996

C.A. Luchinat, Giardini Medicei: Giardini di palazzo e di villa nella Firenze del Quattrocento, Milan 1996
1996

L. Cheles, 'Piero della Francesca e i Vittoriani', in M. Dalai Emiliani and V. Curzis (eds), Piero della Francesca tra arte e scienza: Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Arezzo, Sansepolchro, 1992, Venice 1996, pp. 569-92
1998

B. Laskowski, Piero della Francesca, Cologne 1998
1998

L. Cheles, 'Copie ed echi di Piero in Inghilterra', in C. Prete and R. Varese (eds), Piero interpretato: Copie, giudizi e musealizzazione di Piero della Francesci, Ancona 1998, pp. 13-38
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

E. Ferri, Piero della Francesca: Storia e misteri del maestro della luce, Milan 2001
2001

H. Davies, 'Sir John Charles Robinson and John Malcolm of Poltalloch: Collecting Italian Old Master Drawings in Nineteenth-Century England', Apollo, CLIII/469, 2001, pp. 35-42
2002

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2002

A. Ducci, '"Jamais nous n'avons éprouvé un plus haut sentiment de sécurité intellectuelle que devant ces murailles": Il "Piero della Francesca" di Henri Foncillon', Bulletin de l'Association des Historiens de l'Art Italien, 9, 2002, pp. 55-73
2003

M. Carminati, Piero della Francesca, Milan 2003
2005

J.V. Field, Piero Della Francesca: A Mathematician's Art, New Haven 2005
2005

C. Gardner von Teuffel, From Duccio's 'Maestà' to Raphael's 'Transfiguration': Italian Altarpieces and Their Settings, London 2005
2007

C. Bertelli, Piero della Francesca e le corti italiane (exh. cat. Museo Statale d'Arte Medievale e Moderna, 31 March - 22 July 2007), Arezzo 2007
2008

M. Mussini and L. Grasselli, Piero della Francesca 'de prospectiva pingendi': Saggio critico, Sansepolcro 2008
2008

G. Forgione, 'La "follia" ferrarese e la "ragione" di Piero: I due Rinascimenti', Storia dell'arte, XIX, 2008, pp. 53-68
2008

F. Dabell, 'Piero della Francesca e i pittori prospettici', in L. Fornasari et al., Arte in terra d'Arezzo: Il Quattrocento, Florence 2008, pp. 107-30
2008

G. Fattorini, 'Quattrocentisti senesi tra l'alta Valle del Tevere e la Val di Chiana', in L. Fornasari et al. (eds), Arte in terra d'Arezzo: Il Quattrocento, Florence 2008, pp. 77-98
2009

G. Vangelisti, 'Sir Charles Lock Eastlake a Verona', Verona illustrata, 2009, pp. 73-106

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.

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Find out why National Gallery Director, Gabriele Finaldi, has chosen Piero della Francesca's 'Baptism of Christ' for his Picture of the Month, as we mark the beginning of the Gallery's Bicentenary year in May 2024.

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