1502
tempera
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
The Baptism of Christ is a 1502 tempera by Pietro Perugino, a Early Renaissance work, depicting John the Baptist, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see Jesus standing in a shallow river, John the Baptist pouring water over his head, and three angels on the bank holding robes. This panel was once part of a long, low strip called a predella—the story-board at the bottom of an altarpiece. Each scene showed a moment when Jesus’s divinity was revealed. The quiet river, the distant hills, and the soft light tie all five panels together like a single quiet day. To see how the story continues, look up the other panels at the Art Institute of Chicago.
These four panels , together with another one depicting the Resurrection (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), once constituted a predella—a series of small pictures, often narrative scenes, forming the base of an altarpiece. These predella scenes depict moments when Jesus’s divine nature was revealed: at his birth, at his baptism, during his conversation at a well with a Samarian woman, at his res-urrection, and through his appearance to Mary Magdalene after his resurrection. The painting that once surmounted the predella as the focal point of the altarpiece has not been identified.
Alexander Barker, London, by 1852 to at least 1857 [lent to London 1852 and Manchester 1857]; sold by Barker to William Ward (d. 1885), first Earl of Dudley, London, by 1868 [lent by Dudley to Leeds 1868]; sold Christie’s, London, June 25, 1892 (nos. 76-77, 79-80. The Resurrection, no. 78, was sold separately and is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art), to Durand-Ruel, Paris and New York, acting on behalf of Martin A. Ryerson [according to letters from Durand-Ruel to Ryerson dated June 25 and 29, 1892 in the Art Institute archives]; sold by Durand-Ruel to Martin A. Ryerson (d. 1932),…
London, British Institution, 1852, no. 34. Manchester, Art Treasures of the United Kingdom, 1857, no. 84. Leeds, National Exhibition of Works of Art, 1868, no. 2906. London, Royal Academy of Arts, Works of the Old Masters, 1871, no. 312. London, Royal Academy of Arts, Works by the Old Masters, 1892, no. 147. The Art Institute of Chicago, Selected Works of Old and Modern Masters, 1898, no. 11. The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, 1933, no. 123b. Chicago, South Side Community Art Center, Exhibition of Religious Art, 1942, no. 6. Highland Park Library, Illinois, 1952 (no cat.).…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Pietro Perugino (US: PERR-ə-JEE-noh, -oo-; Italian: ; born Pietro Vannucci or Pietro Vanucci; c.
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