John the Baptist Portrayed in Art

backer hind end The Baptist There are countless portrayals of buns the Baptist and the committal of his relationship to Jesus and to the Church. washbowl has been one of the saints well-nigh frequently appearing in Christian art. The Baptism of Christ was one of the earliest scenes from the life of Christ to be frequently depicted in Early Christian art. stools tall, thin, and bearded figure is already established and recognizable by the 5th century. In the Gospel of Luke, we are first introduced to him when Mary goes to tell her cousin, Elizabeth, the news of her pregnancy.Elizabeth, already six months pregnant, felt the unborn child jump for joy in her womb. jibe to the Gospels, John declared, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord. Christians interpret this to mean that John was sent to realize for the coming of the Messiah. John does just this, when he is the one who recognizes Jesus as the Messiah and baptizes him. The bapti sm marks the beginning of Jesus ministry. Because this was said to be the beginning, John is know as John the Baptist and John the herald.We will describe the appearance of John the Baptist further in our analysis and how this depicts his life hundreds of familys later. The first make, titled John the Forerunner was through by an unknown iconographer in the typical Orthodox style during the 11th Century. It follows the prototypes established for John the Baptist within the Eastern tradition. In fact, the orthodox oftentimes refer to John as the Forerunner, as you follow through in this piece, because as stated before, he led the way for Christs arrival. As nearly orthodox break downs are, John is very still and lacking emotion, and there is no emphasis on three dimensionality.The mosaic relies heavily on symbolisation instead, by portraying John with a scroll in his go away hand and a gesture pointing up to Jesus Christ with his right hand. The iconic imagery of the scroll s ymbolizes Johns importance and holiness as a preacher of God. The scroll reads ECCE AGNUS DEI, QUI TOLLIT PECCATA MUNDI, or Behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, stigma Johns prediction of the Messiahs approach. Typically, we see John dressed in his camel tunic, but here, we see the specifics of his clothing may vary. John the Baptist is as well depicted with a halo, emphasizing his ainthood and his major contribution to the life and mission of Christ. In Donatellos bronze statue of Saint John the Baptist, we see his tunic do of camel hair, along with the iconographic imagery of his raised right arm and his symbolic staff and scroll in his let arm. Although the imagery is still present, Donatello gives St. John emotions with the expression of aggravator or grief on his face. The adding of emotion was a fairly common trait of the Florentine High Renaissance limit, and it also signifies a slight rupture in representation compared to our previous Orthodox work.For quite some time, there was debate over the completion date of the sculpture. In 1973, the restoration of the piece revealed a signature and date of 1438. The date confirms that Donatello carved the sculpture in Florence for the Venetian confraternity of the Florentines. The Renaissance was a time of innovation within ghostlike art. We start to see it with Donatellos work, but it is strikingly clear in Jacopo del Sellaios circa 1480 version of St. John. Sellaio abandons the iconic scroll, traditional clothing, and yet Johns gesture made toward the heavens.Instead, Sellaio shows us a youthful John the Baptist, wearing bright, impressive colors. Included is a small bowl, placed at Johns feet to symbolize the baptism of Christ. Other than that, most of the religious symbolism has transferred to political symbolism, evident in the detail of the landscape. In the distance, we see the Palazzo Vecchio, Brunelleschis dome cathedral and the campanile designed by Giotto. Therefore, this work would live appealed to the Church and the people of Florence by combining a sense of religious, social, and political pride, which was also not uncommon during the Renaissance in Florence.The Sermon of Saint John the Baptist, by Pieter Bruegel, was done in the elaborately detailed Baroque style during the Reformation Period of Northern Europe. In the word picture dated 1566, and done with oil on wood, we recognize a village preacher at one of the countless religious congregations that took place during the Reformation. The preacher is identified as John the Baptist, as he is in his traditional camel cloak. St. John is almost lost in the heart of the picture, leaving the colorful, unorganized crowd to be the principal effect of the painting.We must search for the meaning of the painting by flavoring closely scanning to see what story the painter intended to tell. John the Baptist therefore is not in the traditional iconic format here. The size, detail, and landscape see m to be more of the emphasis, which is a quality of Baroque Reformation art. This change in focus served as a statement for the Protestants, insinuating that the salvation of humankind lies within the individuals faith alone, not solely with the canons of the Catholic Church. Our group looked at this painting and immediately noticed the light at the end of the tunnel, or how the path forward, is lit up so brightly.John the Baptist is almost preaching and pointing the way from the disastrous to the light, from wrong to right, towards the path of Christ. This painting is now on display in the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. Dutch artist, Bartholomeus Breenbergh, completed his version of The Preaching of John the Baptist circa 1634, which is again in the Baroque Reformation period. Breenbergh does represent John the Baptist traditionally for the most part, keeping his right hand pointed to the sky and his left hand guardianship a staff. On the contrary though, the attention to indi viduality and landscape still presents itself, much like Bruegels work.The crowd around John the Baptist seems to be absent-minded and somewhat inattentive, further symbolizing the Catholic and Protestant split. John the Baptist may be talking of the Saviors arrival, and has scared those who do not or refuse to believe. Breenberghs piece can be viewed in person in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City. Spanish artist, El Greco is credited for his Counter Reformation work in his rendition of St. John the Baptist. The detailed landscape we have discussed previously is still incorporated, however, the focus and iconography are extremely emphasized.Paying tribute to the traditional St. John the Baptist, El Greco removes the confusion of the Reformation style and retains his pose, staff, camel tunic, and lamb. The images we have seen so far have not included the lamb, but in earlier images of St. John the Baptist, the lamb was ordinarily interchangeable with the scroll or st aff. If the scroll or staff were absent from the image, thence a book or object with a picture of a lamb on it would be present, in order to keep the iconography of Jesus Christ within the context.We see El Greco taking the initiative and mixing the Catholic Churchs traditional conventions with the Baroque style, which essentially is the definition of Counter Reformation art. Another example of Counter Reformation art during the Baroque period can be seen in Mattia Pretis Saint John the Baptist Preaching. Similar to El Grecos work, the symbolism and iconography is much more in-depth compared to the Reformation art in the north. The Counter Reformation style resorts back to the heavy emphasis on symbolism in art, a quality that seemed to fade during the Renaissance.This return to symbolism served as the Catholic Churchs statement on the importance of tradition and its restoration after the Protestant Reformation. John the Baptist looks almost exhausted, assumed from preaching, as the earth shows the sun setting after a long day. The lamb is also laying down, looking towards where John is pointing to the coming of Jesus. In Philippe de Champaignes 1657 version of John the Baptist, we are able to see him up close and large in size in comparison to other portrayals as well as to the stage setting of this painting in general. De Champaigne has St.John looking out, assuming that he does not yet have your attention. His glare seems to take you in and point you in the direction of an come up figure. As the Forerunner, Jesus precursor, John the Baptist is announcing the coming of the Messiah with the staff and scroll announcing Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world. John the Baptist is about to hand over his run as preacher to the greater one who is on His way. This painting almost transcends time, John is not just pointing us back to the past, but to how Jesus mission is still in the future.The picture shows Jesus as someone we havent met , havent heard of, and can barely see yet. It is showing its viewer the coming of Jesus then and as He will come again, as the scripture tells us. The life-size marble statue of St. John the Baptist, by Giuseppe Obici, shows that during the 19th century, the Catholic Church was still belongings strong to its iconic representation of St. John the Baptist. By this point, the traditional conventions displayed in this sculpture should be obvious, furthering the importance of iconography in art, at least by the Catholic Churchs standards.Just twenty-two years after Obicis ever-symbolic John the Baptist, French sculptor Auguste Rodin breaks the mold of the Churchs iconographic representation. In Rodins version, St. John is stripped of his normal tunic and left nude, a feature that would not have been popular amongst the ideals of the Roman Catholic Church in the 19th century. The religious symbolism is also removed from this work. The lamb representing his holiness as a preacher is left out, and although it appears St. Johns gesture towards heaven remains, this convention is left out also.Sources say that the statue was originally holding a cross in his right hand, but was soon removed to take away every biography context for the figure. Without the cross, there arent any religious connotations involved with this piece, other than its title. Some may consider this to be a sign of the Churchs declining influence on art and a beginning to the contemporary age of the 20th century. Moving on to Modern art, the work done last year by a young English artist, Lara French, entitled John the Baptist after its inspiration, the medieval work on the right.This abstracted piece of modern art removes itself even further from the original icon of John the Baptist, maybe as far as physically and symbolically possible. We speculated and talked as a group about any possible connections between the two, and came up with very few. We therefore look forward to hearing what our classma tes have to say and to see if they find any features that we missed. In conclusion, we have looked at works ranging from the 11th century to today. The early Orthodox works appear highly iconographic and unconcerned with anything else.The Renaissance introduced to the world new ways to look at religious art. This was mainly due to the growing power and pride of Popes, aristocratic families, and the politics of Florence at the time. The Church lost some of this power during the Reformation, in which the Protestants used art to make statements about their beliefs. In reaction, the Catholic Church did the same by restoring their tradition and iconography in their art. Finally, as the need for patrons declined and the presence of elegant freedom increased, iconography in art is now generally decided by artists themselves.