Saint John the Baptist as a child

John the Baptist is one of the most important saints in the Christian tradition: by prophesying the coming of the savior of humanity, he is considered a forerunner of Jesus Christ. 

According to biblical narrations, Elizabeth, mother of the saint, was first cousin of the Virgin Mary. The two women became pregnant the same year but at different months, so Saint John and Jesus were approximately the same age.

According to the story, Elizabeth was sterile, but miraculously she was able to conceive Saint John. The Archangel Gabriel, who announced the birth of Christ to Mary, was also in charge of communicating the good news to Zacharias, father of the saint. 

To highlight the family bond between the Baptist and Jesus, in the Renaissance the saint began to be represented as a child who usually accompanied the Holy Family. These images arose from pious legends and from the devotion that was professed to the saint in Italy. 

Although in apocryphal texts it is told that the cousins met in childhood, the gospels say that the first time Saint John saw Jesus was at the age of thirty, when he baptized him at the Jordan River. From this episode arises the name of ‘the Baptist’. 

In this painting, Saint John, who led a life far from society, is found in a natural setting. A camel skin dress and red tunic serve as his outfit. In his right hand he holds a shell on which water, symbol of baptism, falls 

To reinforce the role of the Baptist as a prophet of the arrival of the Messiah, in the lower left corner there is a sheep that represents Christ as the lamb sent by God to sacrifice himself for the salvation of sinners. 

The representations of the childhood of Saint John were rejected by treatise writers such as Francisco Pacheco. However, painters like Bartolomé Esteban Murillo popularized this type of scenes.

This is one of the few signed and dated colonial oil paintings. Its author, Alonso de Heredia, painted numerous works for temples in cities like Santafé and Tunja.