1622
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness is a 1622 oil by Diego Velázquez, a Baroque work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a young man in a red robe sitting alone on a rock, holding a thin reed cross and pointing upward. This painting was once thought to be by an unknown artist. Now experts believe it’s an early work by Velázquez, painted when he was only about 20. The way the light softly touches the saint’s skin and robe feels gentler than his usual sharp realism. If you like this quiet moment, look up the technique called *chiaroscuro*—how artists use strong light and shadow to shape a scene.
This painting depicts a young Saint John the Baptist living as a hermit in the wilderness. His cross of reeds, pointing gesture, and the nearby lamb refer to his role as a prophet foretelling the coming of Christ, the so-called “lamb of God,” in the New Testament. Previously attributed to an unknown Sevillian artist, this painting has recently been recognized as the work of a young Diego Velázquez. The treatment of the saint is more idealized than figures in Velázquez’s earliest work, suggesting that it may have been made after his brief visit in 1622 to Madrid, where Italian paintings in the…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez was a Spanish Baroque painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age.
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