Lorenzo Bartolomeo, called Baccio Ciarpi (1574-1654) - Saint John the Baptist

Lorenzo BARTOLOMEO, called Baccio CIARPI (Barga, 1574 - Rome, 1654)
Saint John the Baptist
Before 1614
Oil on canvas - 25 ???? × 19 ¹¹??? in. (65 × 50 cm)
Italian 17th-century frame - 31 ??? × 25 ³?? in. (81 × 64.5 cm)

We thank Professor Federico Berti, an art historian specialising in Tuscan painting, for having written its catalogue entry. The original signed entry in Italian is available on request.


A synthesis of naturalism and idealisation, this painting reflects the influence of Caravaggio on Tuscan painting during the Counter-Reformation. After training under Santi di Tito, Baccio Ciarpi settled in Rome, where he developed a style that blended the lingering Mannerist sensibility of his native Tuscany with the emerging Roman tenebrist innovations.

Federico Berti dates this canvas to the second decade of the seventeenth century, before 1614, the year when Baccio Ciarpi became the master of the great Pietro da Cortona.

Catalogue entry available on demand