Saint John the Baptist
Artist: Bartolomeo Caporali (Italian, c. 1420 - c. 1505)
Original Dimensions: 48 3/8" x 19 1/4"
Location: National Gallery of Art, London
About Artwork: (Probably 1475-80) "A barefoot saint, dressed in a camel-hair shirt and holding a cross, stands on a marble base. His hair and beard are arranged in extravagant ringlets, and a long banner curls around the cross; we can see part of a Latin inscription on it. This striking figure is Saint John the Baptist, the biblical hermit saint. He once stood on the left side of a triptych (a painting in three parts) probably made in around 1475–80 by Bartolomeo Caporali. The inscription quotes some of the words with which John recognised Christ as the Messiah, ‘Behold the Lamb of God’ or, in Latin, ‘Ecce Agnus Dei’. Caporali perhaps had trouble with his Latin vocabulary: he has written ‘Eccie’ in place of ‘Ecce’." - (National Gallery of Art, London)

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