Fine Canvas Art Blog

Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness, Caravaggio, 1605

Caravaggio / Inspirational prints / Italian / Paintings (Reproductions) / Renaissance - 1 year ago - troycapc

This print is from the small altarpiece, one of a handful of original works by Caravaggio in the United States.  It was painted toward the end of the artist’s career in Rome in about 1605.

The conception of the image is itself remarkable, for the Baptist had hardly ever before been portrayed as an isolated, seated figure who lacks, moreover, his usual attributes of halo, lamb and banderole. Stark contrasts of light and dark accentuate the perception that the figure leans forward, out of the deep shadows of the background and into the lighter realm of the viewer’s own space.

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