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| Title | St John the Baptist in the Wilderness | |
| Collection | Culture and Sport Glasgow (Museums): Kelvingrove Museum | |
| Artist | Attributed to Allori, Alessandro (Italian painter, 1535-1607) Previously attributed to Cesare da Sesto (Italian painter, 1477-1523) Previously attributed to Naldini, Giovanni Battista (Italian painter, ca. 1537-ca. 1591) Previously attributed to Santi di Tito (Italian painter, draftsman, and architect, 1536-1602) |
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| Date Earliest | probably about 1580 | |
| Date Latest | probably about 1600 | |
| Description | The saint sitting on a rocky bench is dressed only in a small cloth of fur. His staff is bound around with ivy and a scroll with the inscription 'ECCE AGNI/ OVI.', Behold the Lamb of God, the words with which he first recognised the true nature of Christ. Begging for alms, he is holding a bowl, symbolising the bowl on which his head would be presented to Salome, the daughter of Herodias, wife of King Herod, after she had requested his execution. | |
| Current Accession Number | 1588 | |
| Inscription | front ul (on the scroll around the staff of the Saint) 'ECCE AGNI/ OVI.' | |
| Subject | figure; religion (St John the Baptist) | |
| Measurements | 53.3 x 40.6 cm cm (estimate) | |
| Material | oil on panel | |
| Acquisition Details | Bequeathed by Sir Claude Philips 1924. | |
| Principal Exhibitions | Italian Paintings, Municipal Art Gallery, Harrogate, 1931, cat. no. 20. | |
| Publications | Philipps, C., 'St. John the Baptist, by Cesare da Sesto', Burlington Magazine, vol. 13, 1908, repr. opposite p. 35, as Cesare da Sesto; Berenson, B., Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools, London, 1968, vol. 1, p. 87, repr. vol. 3, pl. 1505, as Cesare da Sesto; Catalogue of Italian Paintings: Illustrations, Glasgow Art Gallery and Museums, 1970, p. 27 (ill.), as Alessandro Allori; Lecchini Giovannoni, S., Alessandro Allori, Turin, 1991, no. 106, p. 268, fig. 243, as Allori. | |
| Notes | Red wax seal on the back 'MAGISTRATO SU[P?]REMO DI FIRENZE' (probably testifying the permission to export the work). Formerly attributed to Cesare da Sesto, later Giovanni Battista Naldini (Carlo del Bravo, Istituto di Storia dell'Arte, Florence in a letter of 10 May 1968) and Santi di Tito (Herward Roettgen, Biblioteca Hertziana, Rome in a letter dated 5 April 1969) were proposed. The painting is now attributed to Allori. |
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| Rights Owner | Culture and Sport Glasgow (Museums) | |
| Author | Dr Heiner Krellig | |