St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness
Encyclopedia
St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness is an oil painting by Hieronymus Bosch. The painting is currently in the Museo Lázaro Galdiano, in Madrid
, Spain
. How it arrived in Spain is not clear, but it forms a pair with St. John the Evangelist on Patmos
which is in Berlin. In the 1940s it was noticed that the two paintings could have been designed as the wings of an altarpiece
. It has since been suggested that the altarpiece in question was an artwork which is known to have been made for St. John's Cathedral, 's-Hertogenbosch
. If the 's-Hertogenbosch hypothesis is correct, the date would be around 1489, although later dates have been proposed based on other criteria.
The lamb in the lower right corner is said to symbolise the sacrifice of John the Baptist
as an innocent victim of the wickedness of mankind.
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. How it arrived in Spain is not clear, but it forms a pair with St. John the Evangelist on Patmos
St. John the Evangelist on Patmos
St. John on Patmos is a painting by Hieronymus Bosch. The painting is currently in the Gemäldegalerie, in Berlin, Germany.The reverse is also painted, the title of that picture is Scenes from the Passion of Christ and the Pelican with Her Young....
which is in Berlin. In the 1940s it was noticed that the two paintings could have been designed as the wings of an altarpiece
Altarpiece
An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...
. It has since been suggested that the altarpiece in question was an artwork which is known to have been made for St. John's Cathedral, 's-Hertogenbosch
St. John's Cathedral, 's-Hertogenbosch
The Roman Catholic Cathedral Church of St. John of 's-Hertogenbosch is the height of gothic architecture in North Brabant, Netherlands. It has an extensive and richly decorated interior, and serves as the cathedral for the bishopric of 's-Hertogenbosch.The cathedral has a total length of 115 and...
. If the 's-Hertogenbosch hypothesis is correct, the date would be around 1489, although later dates have been proposed based on other criteria.
The lamb in the lower right corner is said to symbolise the sacrifice of John the Baptist
John the Baptist
John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...
as an innocent victim of the wickedness of mankind.