The Young Saint John the Baptist

Antonio Rossellino

National Gallery of Art

The head and shoulders of a young boy with short, curly hair is carved from cream-white marble in this free-standing sculpture. In this photograph, his shoulders are squared to us, and he looks down and to our right. He has delicate features and smooth skin. Fabric wraps around one shoulder and across his chest, and a wide strip like animal fur goes over the other shoulder, to our right. The sculpture is cut straight across the chest just below the shoulders, and it sits in front of a background that lightens from smoke gray along the top to nearly white along the bottom.