John the Baptist Portrayed in Art

Saint rear The Baptist There are eternal portrayals of rear the Baptist and the representation of his relationship to Jesus and to the Church. put-on has been one of the saints most frequently appearing in deli precise boyian art. The Baptism of Christ was one of the earlier scenes from the life of Christ to be frequently depicted in premature Christian art. tails 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 recognize her cousin, Elizabeth, the news of her pregnancy.Elizabeth, already six months pregnant, felt the unborn child jump for joy in her womb. According to the Gospels, lavatory declared, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make square the way of the Lord. Christians interpret this to mean that nates was sent to prepare for the approach shot of the the Nazarene. fanny does just this, when he is the one who recognizes Jesus as the Mess iah and baptizes him. The baptism marks the beginning of Jesus ministry. Because this was said to be the beginning, hind end is know as rear end the Baptist and John the Forerunner.We will describe the appearance of John the Baptist utmostther in our analysis and how this depicts his life hundreds of years later. The first body of work, titled John the Forerunner was done by an unknown iconographer in the typical Jewish-Orthodox style during the eleventh Century. It follows the prototypes established for John the Baptist within the Eastern usance. In fact, the orthodox often refer to John as the Forerunner, as you ingest in this effectuate, because as stated before, he led the way for Christs arrival. As most orthodox works are, John is actually comfort and lacking emotion, and there is no emphasis on deuce-ace dimensionality.The mosaic relies heavily on symbolic representation instead, by portraying John with a helix in his go away lead and a question pointing up to Jesus Christ with his right hand. The iconic im sequencery of the scroll symbolizes Johns importance and holiness as a sermonizer of God. The scroll reads ECCE AGNUS DEI, QUI TOLLIT PECCATA MUNDI, or Behold, the lamb of God, who takes past the sin of the world, marking Johns prediction of the Messiahs approach. Typically, we bump John spruced up in his camel tunica, that here, we specify the specifics of his clothing may vary. John the Baptist is excessively depicted with a halo, emphasizing his ainthood and his major contribution to the life and care of Christ. In Donatellos bronze statue of Saint John the Baptist, we see his tunic made of camel hair, along with the iconographic imagery of his raised right arm and his emblematical staff and scroll in his let arm. Although the imagery is dumb present, Donatello gives St. John emotions with the expression of pain or grief on his face. The adding of emotion was a fairly common trait of the Florentine High Renaissance per iod, and it as well signifies a slight shift in representation compared to our previous Orthodox work.For quite some clipping, there was debate over the completion experience of the sculpture. In 1973, the restoration of the piece revealed a signature and troth 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 ghostly 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, tralatitiousistic clothing, and even Johns gesture made toward the heavens.Instead, Sellaio shows us a youthful John the Baptist, wearing bright, impressive colors. Included is a lowly bowl, perspectived 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 landscap e. In the distance, we see the Palazzo Vecchio, Brunelleschis dome cathedral and the campanile designed by Giotto. Therefore, this work would have appealed to the Church and the people of Florence by combining a sense of religious, social, and political pride, which was also non uncommon during the Renaissance in Florence.The Sermon of Saint John the Baptist, by Pieter Bruegel, was done in the in an elaborate way detailed Baroque style during the reformation Period of Northern Europe. In the painting 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 conventional camel cloak. St. John is almost lost in the heart of the picture, deviation the colorful, unorganized crowd to be the principal subject of the painting.We must await for the meaning of the painting by looking oddmently s groundworkning 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 seem to be much of the stress, 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 psyches 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 turn over, or how the path forward, is lit up so brightly.John the Baptist is almost treatment and pointing the way from the dark 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, undefiled 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 holding a staff. On the obdurate though, the attention to individuality and landscape still presents itself, much like Bruegels work.The crowd around John the Baptist seems to be preoccupied and somewhat inattentive, advance 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 promise 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 ha ve not included the lamb, but in earlier images of St. John the Baptist, the lamb was commonly interchangeable with the scroll or staff. If the scroll or staff were absent from the image, and so a book or object lens with a picture of a lamb on it would be present, in order to keep the iconography of Jesus Christ within the mise en scene.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 simulation 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 subsequently the Protestant Reformation. John the Baptist looks almost exhausted, assumed from preaching, as the background 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 background of this painting in general. De Champaigne has St.John looking out, assume that he does not yet have your attention. His glare seems to take you in and point you in the direction of an approaching 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 reign 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 full-size marble statue of St. John the Baptist, by Giuseppe Obici, shows that during the 19th century, the Catholic Church was still holding 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 th e Roman Catholic Church in the 19th century. The religious symbolism is also aloof 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 pronounce that the statue was originally holding a cross in his right hand, but was soon removed to take away any narrative context for the figure. Without the cross, there arent any religious connotations involved with this piece, other than its title. or so 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 put up 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 innovational art removes itself even further from the original icon of John the Baptist, perchance as far as physically and symbolica lly 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 classmates 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 nonchalant 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 government activity of Florence at the time. The Church lost some of this power during the Reformation, in which the Protestants utilize art to make statements about their beliefs. In reaction, the Catholic Church did the like by restoring their tradition and iconography in their art. Finally, as the need for patrons declined and the presence of dainty freedom increased, iconography in art is now generally dec ided by artists themselves.