Saint John the Baptist

The inscription fragment on the scroll is from John 1:29, which reads, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” These are the words Saint John the Baptist spoke to Jesus, when Jesus encountered him baptizing beyond the Jordan River. Living in the wilderness, the saint was clothed in a camel skin, and his hair was matted—just as we see him here. This image, which has been assessed as one of Lippo Memmi (Sienese, active 1317/1347) finest works, was probably created for the church of San Giovanni Battista in the Tuscan hill town of San Gimignano, about 30 miles from Lippo’s home in Siena. It was part of an imposing altarpiece, of which five panels depicting saints (Peter, Paul, John the Evangelist, Francis, and Louis of Toulouse) have been identified in other museums. Originally, they would have been arranged on either side of a slightly larger central image, perhaps of the Madonna and Child. This painting would probably have been on the immediate left—the position of honor to the right of the central figure—as befitting the saint in his own church (see Saint John the Baptist).

When this painting first entered the National Gallery of Art, it was attributed to Lippo’s sometime collaborator and brother-in-law, Simone Martini (Sienese, active from 1315; died 1344), whose graceful and elegant style exerted an international impact on late Gothic art. (See _The Angel of the Annunciation _for an example in the Gallery’s collection.) Here, though, the saint’s slender body and round face, with narrow eyes under arched brows and a long nose, point to Lippo’s unique style. So do the soft colors that complement the saint’s mood of tranquil reflection.