san giovanni battista

San Giovanni Battista (Saint John the Baptist) by Andrea Solari, dated around 1498 and now in Milan's Museo Poldi Pezzoli, depicts the Baptist in the wilderness — the ascetic prophet who preceded Christ, wearing his camel-hair garment and bearing the reed cross. Solari was a Milanese painter closely associated with Leonardo da Vinci's circle; his exposure to Leonardo's techniques in Milan in the 1490s transformed his style, bringing Leonardesque sfumato and the soft modeling of flesh into his traditionally Lombard approach. A Saint John the Baptist in this context would demonstrate Solari's adaptation of Leonardo's treatment of this subject — Leonardo himself painted the Baptist memorably — into a devotional panel format.

Oil on panel with the Leonardesque sfumato technique Solari absorbed in Milan — the Baptist's flesh modeled with the soft, smokeless transitions between light and shadow that Leonardo pioneered, eliminating the harder outlines of earlier Lombard painting. The camel-hair garment provides a textural contrast to the smooth skin of the face and hands.