Saint John the Baptist and Saint Dominic

Fra Angelico's Saint John the Baptist and Saint Dominic, painted around 1420 for the J. Paul Getty Museum, pairs the Precursor of Christ with the founder of the Dominican Order. This pairing linked the prophetic role of the Baptist with Dominic's preaching mission, a comparison the Dominicans often drew. Fra Angelico — born Guido di Pietro, known in religion as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole — was a Dominican friar whose painting practice was inseparable from his spiritual vocation. Working primarily for his own order and for Florentine civic and private patrons, he created some of the most luminous and spiritually powerful images in the history of European art.

The two saints stand in complementary poses with their identifying attributes, rendered in Fra Angelico's early luminous style with careful attention to the contrast between the Baptist's rough garment and Dominic's black and white habit.