Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness
Artist:
Luca Giordano
(Italian, 1634 - 1705)
Place made:Italy
Culture: Italian
Date: ca. 1660
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
57 1/2 x 46 1/4 in. (146.1 x 117.5 cm)
Credit Line: Given in memory of Mary Halsell Vilan by The Ewing Halsell Foundation
Object number: 84.46
Signed: Unsigned
Provenance: sold by H. Schickman Gallery, New York, to Ewing Halsell Foundation, San Antonio, 1984; Ewing Halsell Foundation by gift to San Antonio Museum of Art, 1984
Label Text
St. John the Baptist was one of the four evangelists who chronicled the life of Jesus in the New Testament of the Holy Bible. Best known as the apostle who baptized Christ, St. John lived his life in the wilderness, rejecting a life of luxury and comfort. He is shown here as a virile young man seated on a rocky slope holding a shell to collect water from a spring, a reference to the future baptism. The slender cross over the shell refers to the future martyrdom of both Christ and John, who was beheaded in his 20s for his teachings about Christ, the Messiah.
St. John the Baptist demonstrates some of important characteristics of Roman baroque painting: a preference for realistic images of people drawn from everyday life, dramatically lit by strong contrasts of light and dark, and arranged in a shallow space close to the picture plane so that their gestures seem to burst out of the picture. By using these illusionistic devices, the viewer would feel like a participant in the unfolding drama.
Luca Giordano was one of the great painters of the Italian Baroque. Born in Naples, he was one of the many artists lured to Rome to participate in the decoration of splendid palaces being built there.
(Merribell Parsons, 2014)
St. John the Baptist demonstrates some of important characteristics of Roman baroque painting: a preference for realistic images of people drawn from everyday life, dramatically lit by strong contrasts of light and dark, and arranged in a shallow space close to the picture plane so that their gestures seem to burst out of the picture. By using these illusionistic devices, the viewer would feel like a participant in the unfolding drama.
Luca Giordano was one of the great painters of the Italian Baroque. Born in Naples, he was one of the many artists lured to Rome to participate in the decoration of splendid palaces being built there.
(Merribell Parsons, 2014)
Not on view
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
