The Birth of St. John the Baptist

The panel shows the birth of John the Baptist as a quiet domestic scene: the newborn rests in a bed while his father Zechariah writes, alluding to the instruction to name the child John. The figures of the birth are gathered into a compact space, and the treatment of light stands out within Signorelli's output. Scholars generally date the work to around 1485-1490 and consider it an early piece, with a looser, more narrative style than the painter usually adopted. It originally formed part of the predella of an altarpiece whose origin is not known for certain, although the historian Raffaele Caracciolo suggested a link to the Sant'Onofrio Altarpiece. It entered the Louvre after being acquired on the art market in 1824. Its interest lies in being an early example of dramatic lighting and in revealing a less familiar side of the artist.

Painter

Luca Signorelli

Date

1483

Medium

tempera, oil paint, poplar panel

Dimensions

32 × 70 cm

Museum

Louvre Museum, Paris

Genre

religious art

Depicts

Zechariah, birth, writing, John the Baptist, bed, infant

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