San Giovanni Battista

Antonio d'Enrico, known as Tanzio da Varallo, was born in a village at the foot of Monte Rosa. Perhaps he derived his characteristic painting from the proximity of the great Alpine peaks, as it is marked by transcendence: by the verticality of the figures, the intense colors used, and the silvery and almost livid light that is shown everywhere. After 1600, the artist left for Rome, and there he was shocked by his encounter with the works of Caravaggio. Interpreting in a very personal way the great luminist contrasts of the Lombard, he returned to the north and worked in particular at the Sacred Mountain, where he succeeded in deeply innovating the art of the time, reaching accents of dramatic splendor that partially approach the magisterium of El Greco. Famous are his youths, used to depict sacred characters: beautiful adolescents, who are muscular and modern in their expressive power. This is also the case of the John the Baptist who appears here. Tanzio addresses several times this theme of contrast between the dazzling physicality of the young man and the great mystical mission that awaits him. Here is the lamb, here is the cross, here is an almost licentious nudity. The painter describes with strong chiaroscuro the slightest folds of the body, as he draws an almost human face on the symbolic animal. An eternal wind shakes the saint's hair, whose gaze seems absorbed in a marvelous ecstasy.