''Saint John the Baptist'' is a
High Renaissance oil painting on
walnut wood by
Leonardo da Vinci. Likely to have been completed between 1513 and 1516, it is believed to be his final painting. Its original size was .
The painting is in the collection of the
Louvre. In November 2022, it was loaned to
Louvre Abu Dhabi
The Louvre Abu Dhabi ( ar, اللوفر أبوظبي; french: Louvre Abou Dabi) is an art museum located on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It runs under an agreement between the UAE and France, signed in March 2007, that a ...
for two years as part of the museum's fifth anniversary.
Subject matter
The work depicts the figure of
John the Baptist in isolation through the use of
chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...
, with the figure appearing to emerge from the shadowy background. The saint is dressed in
fur
Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket ...
s, has long curly hair and is smiling in an enigmatic manner reminiscent of Leonardo's famous ''
Mona Lisa''. He holds a reed
cross
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two intersecting lines or bars, usually perpendicular to each other. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally. A cross of oblique lines, in the shape of the Latin letter X, is termed a s ...
in his left hand, while his right hand points up toward heaven, similar to the figure of Saint Anne in Leonardo's ''
Burlington House Cartoon''. According to
Frank Zöllner, Leonardo's use of
sfumato "conveys the religious content of the picture", with the "gentle shadows
mbuingthe subject's skin tones with a very soft, delicate appearance, almost androgynous in its effect".
Kenneth Clark claimed that for Leonardo, Saint John represented "the eternal question mark, the enigma of creation", and noted the sense of "uneasiness" that the painting imbues. Barolsky adds that: "Describing Saint John emerging from the darkness in almost shockingly immediate relation to the beholder, Leonardo magnifies the very ambiguity between spirit and flesh. The grace of Leonardo's figure, which has a disturbingly erotic charge, nonetheless conveys a spiritual meaning to which Saint John refers when he speaks of the fullness of
grace from God."
The model for the ''John the Baptist /
Bacchus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans ...
/
Angelo incarnato'' series was
Salaì.
Dating
The dating of ''Saint John the Baptist'' is disputed.
It was seen by Antonio de Beatis in Leonardo's workshop at
Clos Lucé; his diary entry giving a
terminus ante quem
''Terminus post quem'' ("limit after which", sometimes abbreviated to TPQ) and ''terminus ante quem'' ("limit before which", abbreviated to TAQ) specify the known limits of dating for events or items..
A ''terminus post quem'' is the earliest da ...
of 17 October 1517.
Traditionally, the painting has been considered the artist's last, and has been dated to 1513–1516; Leonardo's ''sfumato'' technique here being considered to have reached its apogee.
Some experts, however, have compared the hand of Saint John to a similar work by a pupil in the
Codex Atlanticus, dating the commencement of the picture to around 1509.
The pose is also similar to that of a sculpture of the same subject completed after 1510 for the
Florence Baptistery by
Giovanni Francesco Rustici
Giovan Francesco Rustici, or Giovanni Francesco Rustici, (1475–1554) was an Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor.
__NOTOC__
He was born into a noble family of Florence, with an independent income. Rustici profited from study of the Medi ...
. Leonardo is thought to have given Rustici technical advice for his commission; it is possible that one artist could have influenced the other with the idea for the pose.
Provenance
''Saint John the Baptist'' was apparently part of the French king
Francis I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to:
* Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407)
* Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450
* Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547
* Francis I, Duke of Saxe-Lau ...
's collection at
Fontainebleau in 1542. In 1625, King
Charles I of England received the painting from
Louis XIII of France in return for a
Titian – the ''Holy Family'' – and
Hans Holbein's ''Portrait of Erasmus''.
In 1649, Charles's collection was sold, whereupon the painting entered into the hands of the banker
Eberhard Jabach
Everhard or Eberhard Jabach (10 July 1618 – 9 March 1695) was a French businessman, art collector and director of the French East India Company. He was born in Cologne in the Holy Roman Empire but later naturalised as a French subject.
Life
His ...
.
After a spell in the possession of
Cardinal Mazarin
Cardinal Jules Mazarin (, also , , ; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino () or Mazarini, was an Italian cardinal, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis XI ...
, in 1661 the work once again returned to the King of France –
Louis XIV. Following the
French Revolution, the painting entered the collection at the Louvre, where it remains to this day.
Influence
Prior to this work, Saint John had traditionally been portrayed as a gaunt ascetic. Leonardo's innovative depiction proved influential upon
Raphael's workshop; several portraits of Saint John painted around 1517–1518 attributed to Raphael and
Giulio Romano show a similarly youthful saint in isolation, with a strong contrast between the dark background and the illumination of the figure.
Also numerous copies and variations of ''Saint John the Baptist'' made by
Leonardeschi
The Leonardeschi were the large group of artists who worked in the studio of, or under the influence of, Leonardo da Vinci. They were artists of Italian Renaissance painting, although his influence extended to many countries within Europe.
As ...
exist.
File:John the Baptist - Salai.jpg, ''John the Baptist'' – Salaì
File:Leonardo da Vinci - Angelo Incarnato.jpg, ''Angelo Incarnato'', drawing of Salaì by Leonardo, from a folio of Leonardo's, Bernardino Luini
Bernardino Luini (c. 1480/82 – June 1532) was a north Italian painter from Leonardo's circle during the High Renaissance. Both Luini and Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio were said to have worked with Leonardo directly; he was described as having ...
File:Giampietrino_-_St._John_-_Hermitage.jpg, ''Saint John'' – Giampietrino
References
External links
Interactive online applicationby the
C2RMF for the exhibition "Leonardo da Vinci's Saint John the Baptist in Milan", organized by the
Louvre Museum, Milan City Council and sponsored by
Eni
Eni S.p.A. () is an Italian multinational energy company headquartered in Rome. Considered one of the seven "supermajor" oil companies in the world, it has operations in 69 countries with a market capitalization of US$54.08 billion, as of 11 Ap ...
, featuring zoomable high resolution scientific imagery (color, IR, X-ray, UV etc.) and commentary on the painting. The viewer is based on
IIPImage'.
''Leonardo da Vinci: anatomical drawings from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle'' exhibition catalog fully online as PDF from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on ''Saint John the Baptist'' (see index)
{{Authority control
Paintings by Leonardo da Vinci
Paintings in the Louvre by Italian artists
1516 paintings
Paintings depicting John the Baptist