The Baptism of Christ
Giovanni Baronzioc. 1335
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
This panel, along with _The Birth, Naming, and Circumcision of Saint John the Baptist, _and _Madonna and Child with Five Angels_were once part of the same altarpiece devoted to Saint John the Baptist (see The Baptism of Christ). The altarpiece’s original location is not known, though it was probably featured in a church dedicated to the saint in what is today the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, close to Giovanni Baronzio (Italian, active c. 1320 - 1350)’s home in Rimini. No documents pertaining to the altarpiece have ever been found, but it must have been dismantled by the mid-19th century, when pieces of it began to appear on the art market. The dispersed parts have been linked to each other through various clues: similar dimensions, related subject matter, the artist’s style, and details of technique and execution. One of those is the brocade pattern incised into the gold background, which appears in all the panels. Another clue is the small punch used to impress a pattern in the gold of the halos.
In this painting, John baptizes Christ in the Jordan River as two angels look on. Submerged up to his hips in the water, Christ inclines his head towards the Baptist, who reaches out to him from the rocky shore of the river. In this case, John places his hand on Jesus’s head rather than anointing him with water. As the Gospel (Matthew 3:13–17) reports: “when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him. He saw the spirit of God descending, and a voice said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.'"
- Title: The Baptism of Christ
- Creator: Giovanni Baronzio
- Date Created: c. 1335
- Physical Dimensions: painted surface: 46.3 × 49 cm (18 1/4 × 19 5/16 in.) overall (original panel): 48.8 × 41.2 cm (19 3/16 × 16 1/4 in.) overall (including added strips): 49.6 × 42 cm (19 1/2 × 16 9/16 in.) framed: 56 x 48.6 x 4.6 cm (22 1/16 x 19 1/8 x 1 13/16 in.)
- Provenance: Possibly commissioned as part of the high altarpiece of a church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist in Emilia Romagna or in the Marche, Italy. Probably Monsignor Gabriele Laureani [d. 1849], Rome; Guilio Sterbini [d. 1911], Rome, by 1874;[1] Pasini collection, Rome, by 1924;[2] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence); purchased June 1933 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1939 to NGA. [1] David Farabulini (_La pittura antica e moderna e la Galleria del cav. Giulio Sterbini_, Rome, 1874: 29) cites “varie storie della vita del Battista” in the Sterbini collection, while Adolfo Venturi _(La Galleria Sterbini in Roma_, Rome, 1906), in publishing _The Baptism of Christ_, then forming part of that collection, comments that two additional Stories of the Saint, the “San Giovanni che parla a due seguaci” (i.e., the _Baptist Interrogated by the Pharisees_) and “S. Giovanni tra i Padri del Limbo” (i.e., the _Baptist’s Descent into Limbo_) also formed part of this collection. Farabulini further explains (1874, 13) that Sterbini had acquired paintings for his collection in Rome from Monsignor Gabriele Laureani, prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library, who was engaged in acquiring paintings by “maestri primitivi” for the Vatican’s collections. Since the works later gathered in the Pinacoteca Vaticana also include a panel from this series, namely the _Young Baptist Being Led into the Wilderness by an Angel_ (no. 40185), there are good grounds for assuming that it had arrived in Rome together with the fragments acquired by Sterbini. On the Sterbini collection see also L. Morozzi, "Da Lasinio a Sterbini. Primitivi in una raccolta romana di secondo Ottocento," _AEIMNEΣTOΣ. Miscellanea di studi per Mauro Cristofani_, ed. by B. Adembri, II, Florence, 2006: 908-916. The supposition, quite unfounded, that NGA 1939.1.131 actually comes from the Pinacoteca Vaticana, no doubt derives from these circumstances (see Fern Rusk Shapley, _Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools XIII - XV century_, London, 1966: 69, and Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of the Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:316, citing Bernard Berenson’s notes on the reverse of a photograph of the painting, in the Kress Foundation files). [2] Lionello Venturi (_Pitture italiane in America_, Milan, 1931) was the last to report the painting’s presence in the Pasini collection. Federico Zeri wrote to Robert O. Parks that Pasini was the dealer who sold the entire Sterbini collection; Parks in turn passed this information on to John Walker (letter, Parks to Walker, 27 December 1949, in NGA curatorial files). [3] The bill of sale for a large number of paintings, including this one, is dated 28 June 1933 (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2083.
- Rights: CC0
- Medium: tempera on panel
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