Saint John the Baptist Retiring to the Desert

Giovanni di Paolo's Saint John the Baptist Retiring to the Desert at the National Gallery, London, painted around 1454, is one of a series depicting the early life of the Baptist. Giovanni di Paolo's uniquely visionary landscape settings transform conventional hagiographic narratives into imaginative, almost surreal compositions. Giovanni di Paolo was among the most individual and poetic painters of fifteenth-century Siena, developing a highly personal style that combined the mystical intensity of the Sienese tradition with a love of decorative color and spatial fantasy quite unlike anything in contemporary Florentine painting.

The retreating figure of the young Baptist traverses a landscape of extraordinary inventiveness, with Giovanni di Paolo's characteristic bird's-eye view, vivid colors, and angular figures creating a composition unlike any other painter's work.