Saint John the Baptist

probably c. 1325

Lippo Memmi

Painter, Sienese, active 1317/1347

Shown from the hips up, a bearded man wearing a textured shirt under a cranberry-red robe stands in front of a gold background in this vertical painting, which comes to a pointed arch at the top. The man’s pale skin has a green-gray cast in the shadows, but his cheeks are pink. His body faces us, but he looks off to our right with slitted, brown eyes under curving brows. He has a long, straight nose and his lips are closed. His shoulder-length brown hair curls around his head, and his beard falls to his chest in long ropes like thick fringe. His textured shirt is topaz blue, and the red robe is edged with gold. He holds his right arm, to our left, so it crosses his chest as he points to our right. A scroll in the other hand reads, “ECCE AGNUS DEI.ECCE Q.” A patterned halo is punched and incised into the gold background. Molding creating a three-lobed shape over the man’s head is punched with dots and marquis-shaped designs. Areas of brick red show through some areas of the gold background.

Media Options

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The inscription fragment on the scroll is from John 1:29, which reads, “Here is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” These are the words Saint John the Baptist spoke to Jesus, when Jesus encountered him baptizing beyond the Jordan River. Living in the wilderness, the saint was clothed in a camel skin, and his hair was matted—just as we see him here. This image, which has been assessed as one of Lippo Memmi’s finest works, was probably created for the church of San Giovanni Battista in the Tuscan hill town of San Gimignano, about 30 miles from Lippo’s home in Siena. It was part of an imposing altarpiece, of which five panels depicting saints (Peter, Paul, John the Evangelist, Francis, and Louis of Toulouse) have been identified in other museums. Originally, they would have been arranged on either side of a slightly larger central image, perhaps of the Madonna and Child. This painting would probably have been on the immediate left—the position of honor to the right of the central figure—as befitting the saint in his own church (see Reconstruction).

When this painting first entered the National Gallery of Art, it was attributed to Lippo’s sometime collaborator and brother-in-law, Simone Martini, whose graceful and elegant style exerted an international impact on late Gothic art. (See The Angel of the Annunciation for an example in the Gallery’s collection.) Here, though, the saint’s slender body and round face, with narrow eyes under arched brows and a long nose, point to Lippo’s unique style. So do the soft colors that complement the saint’s mood of tranquil reflection.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 3

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    painted surface (incised line to incised line): 88.7 × 42.2 cm (34 15/16 × 16 5/8 in.)
    painted surface (original panel): 92.5 × 44 cm (36 7/16 × 17 5/16 in.)
    overall: 94.3 × 45.3 cm (37 1/8 × 17 13/16 in.)
    framed: 99.1 x 48.3 x 6 cm (39 x 19 x 2 3/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1939.1.291

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries: Saint John the Baptist, probably c. 1325

This horizontal painting is made up of three parts: in the center square panel, a woman reclines under a wooden shelter set into a rocky cave, which is surrounded by angels, and narrower wings to either side are each occupied by a standing man. All the people have pale skin, which is tinged with faint green. The three panels are joined with a gold frame, and the gold background behind the central scene and the men in the side panels are covered with a noticeable network of cracks. In the central panel, a cobalt-blue robe nearly envelopes the reclining woman’s body; this is Mary. It covers her head and falls open where she crosses her wrists over her chest to show a pink garment underneath. A flat gold halo encircles her head ,and her body is surrounded by a field of crimson red, almost like an aura. She rests under a wooden structure with a pitched roof, which is surrounded by craggy, barren rock. A swaddled infant lies in a rectangular, tray-like manger. The infant’s head is also surrounded by a gold halo. Fine gold rays emanate down into the structure from a star just above the peak of the roof. A bull and a donkey look down at the baby from the far side of the manger. The interior of the structure behind them is black. In a smaller scale, two women wash a haloed infant in a tub in front of the rocky cave near the lower left corner of this panel. A man with a white beard and hair sits to our left of Mary, holding a pink cloak at his throat and looking toward the infant. Above and around the rocks, seven winged and haloed angels cluster on each side. One angel to the right presents a scroll with black writing to two men accompanied by a dog and several sheep in the lower right. The man in the panel to the left, Isaiah, has a gray beard and long, wavy hair, and he wears a lilac-purple cloak draped over a coral-orange robe. In his right hand, on our left, he holds an unfurled scroll with large black lettering. His other hand is raised with one finger pointing upward. He looks to our left, away from the central scene. On the right, Ezekiel, echoes Isaiah's pose. Ezekiel holds an open scroll with his left hand, on our right, and his other hand is raised. He also wears a coral-colored robe, but his is overlaid with a blue cloak. His receding hair is short and brown, as is his beard. Like Isaiah, he takes up most of the height of the panel and gazes to our left, toward the central panel.

Scholarly Series:  Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably church of San Francesco, San Gimignano, until 1553;[1] church of San Giovanni Battista, San Gimignano, until 1782/1787;[2] church of San Francesco, Colle Val d’Elsa, between 1787 and mid-nineteenth century.[3] Graf von Oriola, Schloss Budesheim, Oberhessen; (his sale, Mensing & Fils at Frederik Muller & Co., Amsterdam, 13 April 1932, no. 3, as by Taddeo di Bartolo).[4] (Jacques Goudstikker, Amsterdam), by 1934;[5] purchased February 1937 through (Paul Cassierer & Co., Amsterdam) by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[6] sold June 1938 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[7] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] In 1865 Francesco Brogi saw two of the original companion panels to the NGA’s painting in the church of the Franciscans of Colle Val d’Elsa (not published until 1897: Francesco Brogi, Inventario generale degli oggetti d’arte della provincia di Siena, Siena, 1897: 158). However, it has been convincingly suggested (Alessandro Bagnoli, "La Chiesa di San Francesco a Colle di Val d'Elsa, intenti per un restauro globale," in Restauri e Recuperi in terra di Siena. XI Settimana dei Beni Culturali, Sienna, December 1995: n.p.; Alessandro Bagnoli, La Maestà di Simone Martini, Milan, 1999: 151 n. 184; Marianne Lonjon, “Précisions sur la provenance du retable dit 'de Colle val d’Elsa' de Lippo Memmi,” Revue des Musée de France 56, no. 2 [2006]: 31-40) that they were transferred there only in the late eighteenth century from the church of the same order in San Gimignano; it may be presumed that they had originally adorned its high altar. Situated outside the city walls, the church of San Francesco in San Gimignano was demolished in 1553, when, by order of Cosimo I de’ Medici, a new system of fortifications was erected around the city.
[2] After the 1553 demolition of their church of San Francesco, the Franciscans moved inside the city of San Gimignano, settling in the convent annexed to the church of San Giovanni Battista. In 1782 Duke Leopold suppressed this convent, forcing the friars to make another move.
[3] The community of friars moved to the convent of San Francesco in Colle Val d’Elsa in 1787, likely bringing with them all the church furnishings from San Gimignano. As mentioned above (note 1), two companion panels, Memmi’s Saint Francis and Saint Louis of Toulouse (both now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena), were recorded by Francesco Brogi in 1865 as hanging in the sacristy of the Franciscan church of Colle. The other panels of the dismembered altarpiece were no longer there at this time.
[4] The auction catalog offered for sale a “Collection Comte Oriola, formée en Italie de 1860-1896 env.,” without further explanation. Lot 1 of the sale was a detached fresco by Perugino representing the Pietà, which apparently remained unsold (now in the collection of the Cassa di Risparmio in Florence). Walter and Elisabeth Paatz (Die Kirchen von Florenz. Ein kunstgeschichtliches Handbuch, 6 vols., Frankfurt am Main, 1940-1953: 4 [1952]: 649-650, n. 35) cite the fresco as belonging to the heirs of Graf Oriola in Büdesheim, Oberhessen, the location of the collection. The year 1883 is stated as the date of Graf Oriola’s acquisition. An Italian stone relief representing the Profile Portrait of a Man, lot 46 of the 1932 sale in Amsterdam, which similarly found its way into the Kress Foundation’s collection in 1938 and subsequently into the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa, is also stated to have belonged to the Oriola Collection in Büdensheim; see Ulrich Middeldorf, Sculptures from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. European Sculptures, London, 1976: 67. It is possible that the “Comte Oriola” named in the sale catalogue referred to Eduard Ernst Lobo da Silveira (1809-1862) and his sons, Waldemar (1854-1910) and Joachim (1858-1907) Lobo da Silveira, all of whom were known as Graf von Oriola. They were the son and grandsons, respectively, of a Portuguese minister, Joaquim José Lobo da Silveira (1772-1846), who was given a title in the Prussian nobility by Friedrich Wilhelm III, king of Prussia (1770-1840) and who resettled his family in Prussia. Waldemar had Schloss Büdesheim constructed in 1885 near an older castle of the same name, and Joachim was a naval attaché in the German embassy in Italy.
[5] Goudstikker lent the painting to an exhibition in Amsterdam in 1934. On the life and career of the Dutch dealer see Charlotte Wiefhoff, “De Kunsthandelaar Jacques Goudstikker 1897 - 1940,” Nederlands Kunsthistotisch Jaarboek 32 (1982): 249-278.
[6] Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 119, box 264, folder 8; reel 121, box 266, folder 18 (copies in NGA curatorial files).
[7] The bill of sale for eight paintings, including this one, is dated 21 June 1938; payments were to extend through November 1939. The attributions on the bill, in this case to Simone Martini, were those of Bernard Berenson. Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: reel 329, box 474, folder 5 (copies in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1858.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1934

  • Italiaansche Kunst in Nederlandsch Bezit, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1934, no. 222, repro., as by Simone Martini.

Bibliography

1932

  • Marle, Raimond van. Le scuole della pittura italiana. 2 vols. The Hague and Florence, 1932-1934: 2(1934):210, fig. 142.

  • Collection Comte Oriola, formée en Italie de 1860-1896 Env. : tableaux, sculptures, tapisseries... acquis en grande partie des collections Bardini, Borghese etc., vente publique à Amsterdam, direction Mensing & Fils, le 13 avril 1932. Amsterdam, 1932: lot. 3.

1934

  • Marle, Raimond van. Italiaansche Kunst in Nederlandsch Bezeit. Exh. cat. Stedelijk Museum. Amsterdam, 1934: 85, fig. 222.

1935

  • Beenken, Hermann. "Review of Le scuole della pittura italiana II by Raimond van Marle." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 4 (1935): 356.

  • Marle, Raimond van. "La pittura all’esposizione d’arte antica italiana di Amsterdam." Bollettino d’arte 27 (1935): 297, fig. 4

1936

  • Rinaldis, Aldo de. Simone Martini. Rome, n.d. [1936]: 79.

1939

  • Comstock, Helen. "The World’s Fair and other Exhibitions." Connoisseur 103 (1939): 277.

1940

  • Suida, Wilhelm. "Die Sammlung Kress: New York." Pantheon 26 (1940): 274.

1941

  • Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 13, repro., as by Simone Martini.

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 185, no. 402, as by Simone Martini.

  • National Gallery of Art. Book of Illustrations. Washington, 1941: 186 (repro.), 241 as by Simone Martini.

  • Richter, George Martin. "The New National Gallery in Washington." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 78 (June 1941): 177.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 247, repro. 189, as by Simone Martini.

1944

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 21, repro., as by Simone Martini.

1952

  • Zeri, Federico. "An Exhibition of Mediterranean Primitives." The Burlington Magazine 94 (1952): 321.

1956

  • Steinweg, Klara. "Beiträge zu Simone Martini und seiner Werkstatt." Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 7 (1956): 167.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 31, repro., as by Simone Martini.

1960

  • Volpe, Carlo. "Precisazioni sul ‘Barna’ e sul ‘Maestro di Palazzo Venezia.’" Arte antica e moderna (1960): 157 n. 10.

  • Ranucci, Cristina. "Lippo di Memmo di Filippuccio (Memmi)." In Dizionario biografico degli italiani. Edited by Alberto Maria Ghisalberti. 82+ vols. Rome, 1960+: 65(2005):227.

1961

  • Coor, Gertrude. "Two Unknown Paintings by the Master of the Glorification of St. Thomas and Some Closely Related Works." Pantheon 19 (1961): 129-130, 133-134 n. 15, 135 n. 25, fig. 9.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): no. 298, repro., as by Simone Martini.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 89.

1966

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 49, fig. 126.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 78, repro.

  • Bereson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:270.

1969

  • Bologna, Ferdinando. I pittori alla corte angioina di Napoli, 1266-1414, e un riesame dell’arte nell’età fridericiana. Rome, 1969: 335 n. 7.

1970

  • Seymour, Charles. Early Italian Paintings in the Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven and London, 1970: 92.

  • Contini, Gianfranco, and Maria Cristina Gozzoli. L’opera completa di Simone Martini. Milan, 1970: 105, no. 54.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 141, 646, 662.

  • Delogu Ventroni, Sebastiana. Barna da Siena. Pisa, 1972: 59.

1974

  • De Benedictis, Cristina. "A proposito di un libro su Buffalmacco." Antichità viva 13, no. 2 (1974): 8.

  • Mallory, Michael. "An Altarpiece by Lippo Memmi Reconsidered." Metropolitan Museum Journal 9 (1974): 187-188, fig. 5.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 232, repro.

  • Mallory, Michael. "Thoughts Concerning the ‘Master of the Glorification of St. Thomas.’" The Art Bulletin 57 (1975): 18-20.

1976

  • Caleca, Antonio. "Tre polittici di Lippo Memmi, un’ipotesi sul Barna e la bottega di Simone e Lippo, 1." Critica d’arte 41 (1976): 53, fig. 59.

  • Mallory, Michael. The Sienese Painter Paolo di Giovanni Fei (c. 1345-1411). New York and London, 1976: 102-103, pl. 37.

1977

  • Torriti, Piero. La Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena. I Dipinti dal XII al XV secolo. Genoa, 1977: 90.

  • Maginnis, Hayden B. J. "The Literature of Sienese Trecento Painting 1945-1975." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 40 (1977): 289.

  • Bennett, Bonnie Apgar. Lippo Memmi, Simone Martini’s “fratello in arte”: The Image Revealed by His Documented Works. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1977. Ann Arbor, MI, 1979: 102-103, pl. 37.

  • Caleca, Antonio. "Tre polittici di Lippo Memmi, un’ipotesi sul Barna e la bottega di Simone e Lippo, 2." Critica d’arte 42 (1977): 70.

  • Meiss, Millard. "Notes on a Dated Diptych by Lippo Memmi." In Scritti di storia dell’arte in onore di Ugo Procacci. 2 vols. Edited by Maria Grazia Ciardi Dupré Dal Poggetto and Paolo Dal Poggetto. Milan, 1977: 1:139.

1978

  • Ressort, Claude, Sylvia Beguin, and Michel Laclotte, eds. Retables italiens du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Exh. cat. Musée National du Louvre, Paris, 1978: 19.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:331-333; 2:pl. 241.

  • De Benedictis, Cristina. La pittura senese 1330-1370. Florence, 1979: 20, 91, 93.

1980

  • Zeri, Federico, and Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: Sienese and Central Italian Schools. A Catalogue of the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980: 50-52.

1981

  • Brejon de Lavergnée, Arnauld, and Dominique Thiébaut. Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures du Musée du Louvre. 2, Italie, Espagne, Allemande, Grande-Bretagne et divers. Paris, 1981: 206.

1982

  • Christiansen, Keith. "Fourteenth-Century Italian Altarpieces." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 40 (1982): 26, fig. 25.

  • Natale, Mauro, Alessandra Mottola Molfino, and Joyce Brusa. Museo Poldi Pezzoli. Vol. 1 (of 7), Dipinti. Milan, 1982: 145.

1983

  • L’Art gothique siennois: enluminure, peinture, orfèvrerie, sculpture. Exh. cat. Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon. Florence, 1983: 142.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 231, repro.

  • Bagnoli, Alessandro, and Luciano Bellosi, eds. Simone Martini e “chompagni”. Exh. cat. Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena. Florence, 1985: 28.

1986

  • Conti, Alessandro. "Simone Martini e ‘chompagni’: Siena, Pinacoteca Nazionale, March 27-October 31, 1985." Bollettino d’arte 71, nos. 35-36 (1986): 102.

  • Tartuferi, Angelo. "Appunti su Simone Martini e ‘chompagni.’" Arte cristiana 74 (1986): 86, 92 n. 32.

1988

  • Boskovits, Miklós, ed. Frühe italienische Malerei: Gemäldegalerie Berlin, Katalog der Gemälde. Translated by Erich Schleier. Berlin, 1988: 74, 75.

  • Martindale, Andrew. Simone Martini. Oxford, 1988: 29, 59, fig. 132.

  • Previtali, Giovanni. "Introduzione ai problemi della bottega di Simone Martini." In Simone Martini: atti del convegno; Siena, March 27-29, 1985. Edited by Luciano Bellosi. Florence, 1988: 160, 161, 166 nn. 22 and 26.

1991

  • De Benedictis, Cristina. "Lippo Memmi." In Enciclopedia dell’arte medievale. Edited by Istituto della Enciclopedia italiana. 12 vols. Rome, 1991-2002: 7(1996):733.

1994

  • Cannon, Joanna. "The Creation, Meaning and Audience of the Early Sienese Polyptych: Evidence from the Friars." In Italian Altarpieces, 1250-1550: Function and Design. Edited by Eve Borsook and Fiorella Superbi Gioffredi. Oxford, 1994: 60 n. 122, pl. 54.

  • Carli, Enzo. La pittura a Pisa dalle origini alla Bella Maniera. Pisa, 1994: 56.

1995

  • Baetjer, Katharine. European Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865. A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995: 45.

1996

  • Maginnis, Hayden B. J. "Lippo Memmi." In The Dictionary of Art. 34 vols. Edited by Jane Turner. New York, 1996: 19:455.

1998

  • Frinta, Mojmír S. Punched Decoration on Late Medieval Panel and Miniature Painting. Prague, 1998: 189, 205, 247, 298, 311, 400.

1999

  • Bagnoli, Alessandro. La Maestà di Simone Martini. Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), 1999: 142, 151 n. 184.

2002

  • Franci, Beatrice. "Memmi, Lippo." In La pittura in Europa. Il Dizionario dei pittori. Edited by Carlo Pirovano. 3 vols. Milan, 2002: 2:591.

2003

  • Leone De Castris, Pierluigi. Simone Martini. Milan, 2003: 181, 218 n. 49.

  • "Memmi, Lippo." In Dictionnaire de la peinture. Edited by Michel Laclotte and Jean Pierre Cuzin. Paris, 2003: 640.

2004

  • Secrest, Meryle. Duveen: A Life in Art. New York, 2004: 458, 461.

2006

  • Lonjon, Marianne. "Précisions sur la provenance du retable dit ‘de Colle di Val d’Elsa’ de Lippo Memmi." La revue des musées de France 56 (2006): 34, 38 n. 1, 39 n. 13, figs. 5-7.

2007

  • Foucart-Walter, Elisabeth, and Jean-Pierre Habert, eds. Catalogue des peintures italiennes du Musée du Louvre: Catalogue sommaire. Paris, 2007: 41.

2008

  • Boskovits, Miklós, and Johannes Tripps, eds. Maestri senesi e toscani nel Lindenau-Museum di Altenburg. Exh. cat. Santa Maria della Scala, Siena, 2008: 28-37.

2009

  • Bellosi, Luciano, et al., eds. La collezione Salini: dipinti, sculture e oreficerie dei secoli XII, XIII, XIV e XV. 4 vols. Florence, 2009, 2015: 1(2009):147, 148 repro.

  • Spannocchi, Sabina. "Lippo e Tederigo Memmi." in La Collegiata di San Gimignano, vol. 2, l’architettura, i cicli pittorici murali e i loro restauri. Edited by Alessandro Bagnoli. Siena, 2009: 450.

2016

  • Boskovits, Miklós. Italian Paintings of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2016: 203-214, color repro.

Inscriptions

on the saint's scroll: ECCE AGNUS DEI.ECCE Q[UI TOLLIT PECCATUM MUNDI] (Behold the Lamb of God; behold him who [taketh away the sins of the world]; from John 1:29)

Wikidata ID

Q20173065

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