St. John the Baptist Preaching
1685
Oil on copper
25 x 31 in.
Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by
Josephine Bay Paul, Bertram M. Newhouse, Mrs. Walter Harrison
Fisher, Marion Davies, Paul Rodman Mabury, Mr. and Mrs. John A.
Morgan, and Mrs. Arnold K. Fitger.
In
this painting the hermit Saint John the Baptist is depicted
preaching in the desert to the assembled multitudes, exhorting
them to "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at
Hand." The muscular prophet fairly glows with divinity, but
Giordano gave equal attention to the picturesque assembly
surrounding John. Stylistic evidence suggests that St. John
the Babtist Preaching was painted during Giordano's Spanish period, and
the open-mouthed peasants and withered crones who gather in the
foreground anticipate the art of Francisco Goya.
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GIORDANO intro
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