Getty Museum
Study for the Figure of the Infant Saint John the Baptist
Creator
Fra Bartolommeo (Baccio della Porta)Italian Artist · 1472–1517
All works by this person →Fra Bartolommeo's art reflects the development of Florentine art from the detailed realism of the 1400s to the idealized grandeur, compositional simplicity, and rhythmic movement of the High Renaissance style of the 1500s. The purity of lines and volumes in one of his paintings inspired the young Raphael. A mule driver's son, the young artist born as Baccio della Porta studied with a local painter
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1509
- Medium
- Black and white chalk, on buff-colored paper; squared in black chalk for transfer
- Culture
- Italian
- Department
- Drawings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
As evidenced by the chalk grid, Fra Bartolommeo was well along in the design of his composition for the Getty Museum's painting, *The Rest on the Flight into Egypt with St. John the Baptist,* by the time he made this drawing. He had squared this sheet for enlargement onto the cartoon, the final stage before beginning to paint, which incorporated all the elements of pose, movement, and lighting. In this study, Fra Bartolommeo settled on the lighting, choosing to illuminate the infant from the rear while leaving the front of his body in shadow, is just as in the later painting. Saint John the Baptist's stiff, forward-leaning posture was an important part of the painting's pyramid of figures, a typical High Renaissance arrangement that contributed greatly to the drawing's sense of calm stability.
The authoritative record is held by Getty Museum. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Getty Museum and other institutions.