The Youthful Saint John the Baptist Seated in a Landscape (recto); Unidentified Figure Composition (Dido and Aeneas?) (verso)
about 1655
- Medium
- Pen and brown ink over black chalk (recto); pen and brown ink (verso), on a separate sheet of paper (verso), on which the recto sheet has been laid down
- Dimensions
- 27.1 × 19.2 cm
- Status
- In Museum Collection
- Collect24 Art ID
- C24-202049
Saint John the Baptist appears as an idealized youth rather than as a young child, his more traditional representation. He sits in the wilderness, holding his reed cross with his left hand and the Paschal Lamb with his right. The subject derives from a passage in the Gospel, "John looked towards Jesus and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God.'"(John 1:36) Bartolomé Esteban Murrillo communicated the same message here through John's direct visual engagement of the viewer's attention. Executed in Murillo's early pen style, the drawing displays his distinctive use of chiaroscuro and structured hatching.
Provenance
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Registry history
- about 1655 — Recorded in the collection of J. Paul Getty Museum — drawings
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