GIULIO ROMANO
(b. ca. 1499, Roma, d. 1546, Mantova)

St John the Baptist in the Wilderness

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Oil on panel, 178 x 154 cm
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

This painting is almost identical with the painting attributed to Raphael in the Tribuna of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The naked, athletic St John the Baptist sits on a stony outcrop of a grotto-like rock formation that forms a dark background for his brilliantly lit figure. The spring rising close by can be read as a symbol of baptism.