1458
tempera
panel
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Dominant colour
Saint John the Baptist in Prison Visited by Two Disciples is a 1458 tempera by Giovanni di Paolo, a Early Renaissance work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see a small wooden panel showing two men visiting a bearded prisoner in a dark cell. The prisoner is Saint John the Baptist, dressed in camel hair. The scene is quiet, but the artist packed the tiny space with patterns—checkered floors, striped robes, even the prison bars form a grid. These details weren’t just decoration; they helped people “read” the story before most could read words. If you like how Giovanni di Paolo turns a cramped room into a whole world, look up tempera next.
This series of panels illustrates scenes from the life of Saint John the Baptist, a prophet who foretold Jesus’s arrival as the Christian savior. The Art Institute’s collection includes six panels that were originally part of a group of 12 that possibly formed the doors of a reliquary shrine to the saint. The narrative begins as John leaves civilization, entering the wilderness to become a hermit. In a following scene, John wears a hair shirt, a coarse undergarment symbolizing his ascetic life, as he announces that Jesus is the savior prophesied as the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God. Subsequent…
Edourd Aynard, Lyons, by 1907 [see Perkins 1907]; sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, December 1–4, 1913 no. 51, to Kleinberger, Paris, as agent for Martin A. Ryerson (died 1932), Chicago, 1914 [an entry for June 18, 1914, in Ryerson’s notebook reads: “Bot [sic] of Kleinberter, Paris, 6 panels by Giovanni di Paolo (purchased by him at Aynard sale for 160 000 fr + 10%);” Art Institute Archives]; on loan to the Art Institute from 1914; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1933.
New York, F. Kleinberger Galleries, Italian Primitives, 1917, no. 56. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Loan Exhibition of the Arts of the Italian Renaissance, May 7–September 9, 1923, no. 14. London, Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition of Italian Art, 1200-1900, January–March, 1930, no. 929. Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1–November 1, 1933, no. 85c. Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, June 1–November 1, 1934, no. 29c. Art Institute of Chicago, The Children’s Museum, Explanatory Exhibition of the Panels Showing Scenes from the Life of St. John the…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Giovanni di Paolo di Grazia was an Italian painter, working primarily in Siena, becoming a prolific painter and illustrator of manuscripts, including Dante's texts.
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