The Baptism of Christ

Giovanni Baronzio's Baptism of Christ, painted around 1330, depicts the foundational moment of Christ's public ministry as narrated in the Gospels. As the leading master of the Riminese school, Baronzio drew upon the revolutionary example of Giotto's Arena Chapel frescoes, which he would have known firsthand given Rimini's proximity to Padua. The Baptism likely formed part of a larger Christological narrative cycle, possibly a predella or altarpiece wing.

Tempera and gold on panel with Christ and the Baptist arranged beside the Jordan River in a landscape setting. Baronzio's composition shows the Riminese school's characteristic blend of Giottesque spatial construction with more expressive, angular figural forms and a vivid, saturated palette.