The Birth of Saint John the Baptist
c. 1525
- Medium
- Wood, polychromy, and gilding
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 103.5 × 99.1 cm (40 3/4 × 39 in.)
- Culture
- Spain
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Gift of the Antiquarian Society
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This polychromed and gilded relief was probably once part of a large carved altarpiece with scenes from the life of Saint John the Baptist. The tightly swaddled infant Baptist is the center of attention as he is passed between his mother, Saint Elizabeth, and a kneeling attendant. The well-preserved relief combines, a riot of rich colors and pattern in the treatment of fabrics with figures that show a Renaissance impulse towards volume and weight. It reflects the influence of the sculptors Felipe Vigarny and Diego de Siloe, who worked together in Burgos in the early 1520s; the relief may have been made in the region of Burgos.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
