The Baptism of Christ

This Baptism of Christ from 1460 depicts the central event in the life of John the Baptist, a subject Giovanni di Paolo treated repeatedly throughout his career. The Baptism was among the most important scenes in the Baptist's iconographic cycle and occupied a prominent position in altarpiece programs. Characteristic of the artist's mature approach, the work displays brilliant, jewel-like color, gold grounds, lyrical figure types of Gothic grace, perspectival experiments that create strange compressed spaces, intense narrative invention.

The composition centers on the ritual moment of baptism, with Giovanni di Paolo's characteristic landscape of fantastical rock formations providing an otherworldly setting for the sacred event.