Saint John the Baptist
XVII century. Pencil on laid paper.Not on display
It is a drawing in which Saint John the Baptist is depicted kneeling, in profile looking to his right, with his head facing the front and raised. Meanwhile, he leans on the reed cross with his left hand and extends the basin towards the fountain with his right. The background is a landscape.
The attribution, although neither certain nor completely convincing, can be provisionally acknowledged. However, the technique somewhat differs from the few drawings which are known to be by his hand. The tone is entirely Valencian. Ribalta’s nervous technique is combined with the zigzag lines visible in Orrente’s oeuvre. Fitz Darby (1938), who acknowledges the attribution, thought that it could even be a preparatory drawing for the painting that Ponz quotes in the charterhouse of Porta Coeli.
Pérez Sánchez, Alfonso E., Catálogo de Dibujos. Vol. I. Dibujos españoles siglos XV-XVII, Madrid, Museo del Prado, 1972, p.117
