Spanish school; 17th century.
"San Juanito".
Oil on canvas. Re-coloured.
It has old patches.
It has a frame with treated damage caused by xylophages.
It shows faults in the frame.
Measurements: 72 x 50 cm; 64 x 85 cm (frame).
This work represents Saint John the Baptist as a child, dressed with his usual red tunic and the camel skin typical of his iconography. The figure is set in a classicist landscape setting, calm and serene, open on one side and closed on the other and dominated by a golden light, all elements typical of the type of landscape painting determined by the Italian Carracci brothers, fathers of Baroque classicism and whose influence was notable in the Baroque painting of the Spanish school. The light, already mentioned, is directed in a spotlight that falls directly on the peaceful face of the protagonist, who appears to the viewer in a vulnerable manner with the innocence of a child who does not know his cruel fate. It was the Italian Renaissance that popularised the type of the curly-haired child, inspired by the classical "putti", who plays with the Infant Jesus under the tender watchful eye of the Madonna. The subject has no biblical basis, but it must have appealed to painters of motherhood and childhood, as well as to the faithful, who saw the figure of the Infant Jesus treated with greater humanity. The iconographic type evolved, and soon came to depict Saint John the Baptist as the only figure, as we see here. Once this representation of the Infant Saint John was adopted, Baroque aesthetics returned to this canon, as it allowed the faithful to see a friendly image with which to empathise in a period of confusion and crisis for the church.
The Gospels say of John the Baptist that he was the son of the priest Zechariah and Elizabeth, cousin of the Virgin Mary. He withdrew at a very young age to the Judean desert to lead an ascetic life and preach penance, and recognised in Jesus, who was baptised by him, the Messiah foretold by the prophets. A year after the baptism of Christ, in the year 29, John was arrested and imprisoned by the tetrarch of Galilee Herod Antipas, whose marriage to Herodias, his niece and sister-in-law, he had dared to censure. Finally St. John was beheaded, and his head given to Salome as a reward for his beautiful dances. This saint appears in Christian art in two different guises: as a child, a playmate of Jesus, and as an adult, an ascetic preacher.