The Youthful Saint John the Baptist in the Desert

1753 - 1754. Oil on panel.
Not on display

Painted with remarkable delicacy, probably from life, in this panel Mengs captures the artless fascination with which the saint presents to the world the message of the Redeemer’s arrival, inscribed on the scroll. The figure’s soft luminosity reveals the influence of Correggio (1493-1534), which was decisive for the early years of Mengs’s Roman period.

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The Youthful Saint John the Baptist in the Desert

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Inventory number: P008259
Author: Anton Raphael Mengs
Title: The Youthful Saint John the Baptist in the Desert
Date: 1753 - 1754
Technique: Oil
Support: Panel
Dimension: Height: 33.8 cm; Width: 44.8 cm
Provenance: Joseph Turner, dean of Norwich Cathedral (1746/47-1828); maybe his son, William Hamilton Turner (?); sold at Christie's, London, 9-12-1994, (lot 94); Óscar Alzaga Villaamil Collection, Madrid; donation of Óscar Alzaga Villaamil to the Prado Museum, 2017
Entry date: 2017

Bibliography +

Important old master pictures, including pictures from Houghton, Christie, Manson and Woods, Londres, 1994, pp. 174, lote 94.

Roettgen, S., Anton Raphael Mengs, 1728-1779, Hirmer Verlag, Munich, 1999, pp. 128, nº 80.

Maurer, Gudrun, 'Antón Rafael Mengs. San Juan Bautista joven, en el desierto'. En:, La donación Oscar Alzaga, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2017, pp. 40-43 nº 5.

Maurer, Gudrun, Anton Rafael Mengs. San Juan Bautista joven en el desierto, h. 1753, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2018, pp. 106-108.

Jover, Maite; Alba, Laura; García-Maíquez, Jaime, Antonio Raphael Mengs en las colecciones del Museo del Prado. Aportaciones de un estudio técnico, Boletín del Museo del Prado, XLI nº61, 2025, pp. 63-90 [89].