On-line gallery
- Reference number
- P07853
- Author
- Goya y Lucientes, Francisco de (Spanish)
- Title
- Saint John the Baptist as a Child in the Desert
- Chronology
- Ca. 1810
- Technique
- Support
- Measures
- 105 cm x 90 cm
- School
- Theme
- Shown
- Yes
- Entrance
- DACION
- Procedence
- Acquisition 2003
Goya depicts Saint John as an
adolescent, holding his traditional
attributes: a cross whose banner
reads “Lamb of God.” The artist
places him on a boulder, looking up
and thinking about Christ's future
Passion.
This is an original conception of a
religious subject that was quite
frequent in Spain beginning with
the Baroque painters.
The color scheme, which is
exceptionally vivid, as well as the
drawing, which can even be seen
beside the black areas that have
not lost their volume, are examples
of this work's perfect state of
conservation, which was the result
of Goya's abstract and confident
technique at the end of the first
decade of the nineteenth
century.
It is listed in the inventory of
Goya and his wife's belongings
carried out in October, 1812.
Location on the map
