Baptism of Christ (Titian)
The Baptism of Christ is an oil on panel religious painting by Titian, dated to c. 1512. It is held in the collection of the Capitoline Museums, in Rome.
Description
In the Baptism of Christ, John the Baptist rests on Jesus, and the donor, the Venetian Giovanni Ram, whom the artist was obliged to introduce into the picture, is connected by a glance with the patron Saint. According to Ricketts, in 1910 the picture was "darkened in part", but the condition was "otherwise good".
Date
Titian painted the Baptism of Christ at the end of his Giorgionesque period, about 1510 to 1512. Though the picture is described by Marc Antonio Michiel, who saw it, in 1531, in the house of Giovanni Ram, the donor of it, it is not accepted by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, but ascribed to Paris Bordone. Morelli restored it to Titian.
Analysis
Gronau and Ricketts both compare the figure of John in the Baptism of Christ,—who kneels, supporting himself by his hand, and in this attitude, the upper part of his body bending forwards, completes the act of baptism,—with the figure of the shepherd in the Holy Family with a Shepherd, "a more noble figure than the shepherd," says Gronau, "but bearing to him, we might say, the strongest family likeness." The same figure recurs in the Three Ages of Man.