Saint John the Baptist

Francesco Francia · second half of the 16th century

Medium

Pen and brown iron gall ink, with brush and brown wash, heightened with touches of white gouache, on cream laid paper

Original size

14 × 10.9 cm (5 9/16 × 4 5/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Mannerism

Saint John the Baptist stands as one of the most quietly powerful subjects of the Italian Renaissance, and Francia's treatment of it carries the meditative stillness the theme demands. Francesco Francia was a Bolognese goldsmith who came to painting later in life, and that craft background never left him — his draftsmanship has a jeweller's precision, every line considered and controlled. This work in pen and brown iron gall ink, lifted with delicate wash and touches of white gouache, shows exactly that sensibility: light and shadow are built patiently, the figure emerging from the cream laid paper with a sculptor's sense of volume. The heightening in white gouache — applied sparingly — gives the saint an almost luminous presence, as though candlelit from within. Francia was held in such regard by his contemporaries that Raphael, upon receiving a painting from him, is said to have written back with warm admiration — a rare compliment between two artists of that calibre. The hand-painted oil reproduction translates these qualities faithfully, preserving the tonal depth of the original drawing and the careful gradation of light that defines the figure, rendered now in the richer, more enduring medium of oil on canvas.