Full title | Saint John the Baptist |
---|---|
Artist | Giorgio Schiavone |
Artist dates | 1436/7 - 1504 |
Series | S. Niccolò Altarpiece, Padua |
Date made | probably 1456-61 |
Medium and support | Tempera on wood |
Dimensions | 72 x 25.5 cm |
Inscription summary | Inscribed |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1860 |
Inventory number | NG630.5 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
A saint dressed in an animal skin stands on a marble plinth, holding a cross and a scroll. This is John the Baptist, the biblical hermit saint.
John was usually shown in a camel-hair shirt with long hair and a beard, alluding to the years he spent in the desert, punishing his body with uncomfortable clothes and poor food to bring himself closer to God. On his scroll you can see parts of the Latin phrase ‘Ecce Agnus Dei’ (‘Behold the Lamb of God’) with which he identified Christ as the Messiah.
He comes from a large polyptych (a multi-panelled altarpiece) painted by Giorgio Schiavone for the church of San Niccolò in Padua. Other panels from the altarpiece are also in the National Gallery’s collection.
A saint in a hair shirt stands on a marble plinth, holding a cross and a scroll. This is John the Baptist, the biblical hermit saint. He comes from a large polyptych painted for the church of San Niccolò in Padua by Giorgio Schiavone.
We are not sure exactly how the altarpiece panels were originally arranged but John must have stood on the right side with Saint Peter Martyr: they both look up in the same direction, towards where The Pietà would have appeared.
John was usually shown in a camel-hair shirt, with long hair and beard – as he is in Carlo Crivelli’s painting of him – alluding to the years he spent in the desert, punishing his body with uncomfortable clothes and poor food to bring himself closer to God. In the Middle Ages he was understood as the last of the prophets who foretold the coming of the Messiah, and as the immediate forerunner of Christ. According to the Gospels, when John baptised Christ, the Holy Ghost came down and proclaimed him to be the son of God (as shown in Piero della Francesca’s The Baptism of Christ). John himself identified Christ as the Messiah, and we can see a hint of the words he spoke written on his scroll: Ecce Agnus Dei (‘Behold the Lamb of God’).
Here, he is no longer in the desert; he is in heaven. He wears a rich pink and green robe edged with gold and stands against a burnished gold background. His stance, one leg bent and hip curved out to the side, gives him a sense of solidity. His toes poke forward over the front edge of the plinth, creating a link between the sacred space of the altarpiece and the real space of the viewer.
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S. Niccolò Altarpiece, Padua
These ten panels once made up a polyptych (multi-panelled altarpiece) painted by Giorgio Schiavone, probably between 1456 and 1461. They were perhaps originally made for the chapel of the Frigimelina family in the church of San Niccolò in Padua.
In the fifteenth century the chapel may have been dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as she appears in the middle with saints on either side. We don‘t know exactly how the panels were arranged, but the full-length saints would have been in the bottom layer with the half-length figures above; this was a very popular format for Italian polyptychs. The altarpiece may well have had an elaborate frame, now missing.
The artist’s real name was Juraj Čulinović. Schiavone means ’Slavonian': he came from Dalmatia (in modern-day Croatia) but trained in Squarcione’s workshop in Padua in the late 1450s, when these panels were painted.
These ten panels once made up a polyptych (multi-panelled altarpiece). The artist’s real name was Juraj Čulinović – Schiavone means ‘Slavonian’. He came from Dalmatia (in modern-day Croatia) but was an apprentice in Squarcione’s workshop in Padua in the late 1450s.
He has signed his name on a cartellino on the front of the Virgin’s throne: OPVS. SCLAVONI. DISIPVLI. / SQVARCIONI. S (‘the work of Sclavoni, Squarcione’s pupil’). He seems to have struggled a little with his Latin grammar: the third word originally read ‘discipulus’ but he corrected it to ‘discipuli’.
Schiavone’s style is similar to that of Carlo Crivelli in some ways – for example, his scattering of illusionistic fruits and flowers around his paintings. The way he painted, with gradually shaded variations of tone and no black outlines, and the solidity of his figures are closer to the style of his contemporary Andrea Mantegna, while his creased and crumpled draperies recall the paintings of Marco Zoppo. Both were also pupils of Squarcione.
The altarpiece was probably made for the chapel of the Frigimelinca family in the parish church of San Niccolò in Padua. In the middle of the sixteenth century the church had 11 altars, each belonging to an important local family. An eighteenth-century description states that there was once an ‘ancient altar’ in the Frigimelinca chapel which had been removed to the family’s palace; it apparently showed the Virgin and Child and saints in several panels and had the same inscription we see here.
The altar must have been dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as she appears enthroned in the middle. We don‘t know exactly how the panels were arranged, but the full-length saints would have been in the bottom layer with the half-length figures above. All would have been looking inwards at the Virgin and Christ Child in the centre. This was a very popular format for Italian polyptychs – look at the Demidoff Altarpiece by Crivelli. There may well have been an elaborate Gothic frame, now missing. Although the panels now have square tops, they may well have been cut down and have certainly been regilded, taking away any traces of the frame.
Saints were the heroes of the Middle Ages and those chosen would have been specially important to the commissioner. We see both ancient and modern saints, including one the patron might well have encountered personally: Saint Bernardino, who died in 1444, just before the altarpiece was made. With him in the lower level are Saints Anthony of Padua and Peter Martyr, both of whom lived in the Middle Ages, as well as the biblical John the Baptist. In the upper level are Saints Jerome, Catherine and Sebastian, as well as an female saint whose identity we don’t know. At the top of the altarpiece, above the Virgin and Child, there was an image of the body of Christ supported by two angels – together they represent the beginning and the end of the sacred story.
This is quite an academic altarpiece: the Franciscan Saint Anthony of Padua, the Dominican Saint Peter Martyr, Saint Jerome and Saint Catherine were all known for their scholarship. The interest in the Franciscan and Dominican Orders is typical of the period, although they were especially important in Padua where they were closely involved in the running of the university.










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