The Baptism of Christ

Giovanni Baronzio

National Gallery of Art

A nude man, Jesus, stands with hands together in prayer, hip-deep in a stylized river with a bearded man wearing a fur-like garment on a rocky bank to one side and two winged angels on the other, all against a gleaming gold background in this vertical painting. Another bearded man wearing a white robe floats in a blue field at the top center of the panel. All the people have pale skin, brown hair, and gold halos encircle their heads. At the center of the painting, Jesus’s body is angled to our left, and he tips his head the same direction. Jesus has shoulder-length hair and a trimmed beard. Slate-blue water reaching his hips is painted with regular, white, curving lines to suggest flowing water. Standing on the flat top of a tan-colored rock to our left, the other man head has raggedy, darker brown hair and a fuller beard. His brow is furrowed, and he has dark eyes. He wears the brown, fur-like garment under a white robe. He steps forward on his left foot, farther from us, to touch Jesus’s head with his right hand, and he holds a staff in his other hand. To our right, the angels stand side-by-side facing Jesus. The angel farther from us wears indigo blue and the one closer to us wears a brick-red, patterned, long robe over bare feet. A swath of beige, geometrically patterned fabric drapes over that angel’s arm, whose hands are also held together in prayer. Their wings darken from cream-white at the top to golden yellow, then burnt orange at the bottom. Stylized trees, one to our left and two to our right, grow from the rocky hills beyond the people. In a half-circle at the top, a man smaller in scale hovers, chest down, over the scene. He lifts his right hand toward Jesus and holds a book with a crimson-red cover with his other hand. The semi-circle fades from deep teal at the center to pale aquamarine blue at the outer edge, and is painted with gold starbursts. The entire scene has a gold border with clover-like forms set within diamonds along the inner edge of the panel.