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The Youthful Saint John the Baptist in the Desert

Mengs, Anton Raphael

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Mengs, Anton Raphael

Aussig, Bohemia, 1728 - Rome, 1779

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The Youthful Saint John the Baptist in the Desert

1753 - 1754. Oil on panel

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.

Technical data

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Inventory number: P008259
Author: Mengs, Anton Raphael
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

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.

Maurer, Gudrun, "San Juan Bautista joven en el desierto, h. 1753", en Memoria de actividades 2017, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2018, pp. 106-108.