The Baptism of Christ (Italian: Battesimo di Cristo) is an oil on panel religious painting by Titian, dated to c. 1512. It is held in the collection of the Capitoline Museums, in Rome.Musei Capitolini.
Description In the Baptism of Christ, John the Baptist (top left) rests on Jesus (centre), and the donor, the Venetian Giovanni Ram (bottom right), whom the artist was obliged to introduce into the picture, is connected by a glance with the patron Saint.Gronau 1904, p. 33. According to Ricketts, in 1910 the picture was "darkened in part", but the condition was "otherwise good".Ricketts 1910, p. 181.
Date Titian painted the Baptism of Christ at the end of his Giorgionesque period, about 1510 to 1512.Gronau 1904, p. 295. Though the picture is described by Marc Antonio Michiel (the Anonimo Morelliano), who saw it, in 1531, in the house of Giovanni Ram (Messer Zuan Ram), the donor of it, it is not accepted by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, but ascribed to Paris Bordone. Morelli restored it to Titian.
Analysis
Gronau and Ricketts both compare the figure of John in the Baptism of Christ (Gallery of the Capitol, Rome),—who kneels, supporting himself by his hand, and in this attitude, the upper part of his body bending forwards, completes the act of baptism,—with the figure of the shepherd in the Holy Family with a Shepherd (National Gallery, London), "a more noble figure than the shepherd," says Gronau, "but bearing to him, we might say, the strongest family likeness."Gronau 1904, p. 31. The same figure recurs in the Three Ages of Man (Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh).Ricketts 1910, p. 42.
See also List of works by Titian
References
Sources Gronau, Georg (1904). Titian. London: Duckworth and Co; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 10, 31–33, 295. Ricketts, Charles (1910). Titian. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd. pp. 42–43, 181, plate xxii. "Battesimo di Cristo". Musei Capitolini. Retrieved 7 March 2023.
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