Saint John the Baptist, Italian school 16th century

Marcello Venusti (Mazzo di Valtellina 1510 - Rome 1579) workshop/circle

Saint John the Baptist

Oil on canvas (65 x 50 cm. -  In frame 74 x 58 cm.)

The work depicts Saint John the Baptist in full length in a moment of meditation in the desert, portrayed with sober elegance, seated in his typical contemplative pose with his index finger pointing to the sky, while his gaze turns to the observer, and with one hand he holds the traditional cross-shaped staff, alluding to Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

Characterised by a simplicity that enhances the spiritual purity of the subject, the saint is wrapped in a simple bright red cloak, symbolising the abandonment of material things and the connection with the divine dimension, while the barren and arid environment surrounding him represents solitude and sacrifice, central elements in the saint's life.

The depiction conveys a profound spirituality, typical of the iconographic canons required in the 16th century, and can be traced back to a painter still active in that century, or at the beginning of the next, close to Marcello Venusti (1510 - 1579), a painter of Lombard origin but active for most of his prolific career in Rome, whose workshop received numerous commissions for similar subjects.

Venusti arrived in the Eternal City around 1545, thanks to the support of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and worked first on Perin del Vaga's projects in Castel Sant'Angelo and later alongside Michelangelo in the Pauline Chapel in the Vatican. The work is a smaller version, intended for domestic worship, of the altarpiece commissioned from Marcello Venusti for the church of Santa Caterina dei Funari in Rome.