Description
Workshop of Jacopo Palma the Younger (Venice 1548 – Venice 1628) – Baptism of Christ.
Oil on canvas, unframed.
The composition depicts the Baptism of Christ in keeping with the established iconographic tradition of late sixteenth-century Venetian painting. Christ kneels on the left, his semi-nude body wrapped in a white cloth, his head encircled by a gilded halo; to the right, John the Baptist holds in his right hand the reed with the scroll inscribed Ecce Agnus Dei, while with his left he performs the ritual gesture of baptism. In the upper left, the dove of the Holy Spirit descends within a luminous opening among the clouds. The landscape background, with trees and a distant townscape, recalls the Venetian tradition of the late century in its atmospheric rendering. The earthy palette and the construction of the figures refer consistently to the circle of Palma il Giovane, whose compositional schemes for Venetian religious painting between the sixteenth and seventeenth century are here reprised.
Condition report: Original canvas. Traces of old restorations and wear are present.
