Saint John the Baptist Preaching

Story

This painting is the only surviving scene from the predella (base) of Raphael’s altarpiece for the Ansidei chapel in S. Fiorenzo, Perugia. The main panel of the altarpiece, ‘The Ansidei Madonna’, is also in the National Gallery’s collection. This predella panel would have been placed beneath the figure of John the Baptist. Below Saint Nicholas was a shipwreck, probably relating to one of the miracles he performed. That scene seems not to have survived.

John the Baptist appears as the forerunner of Christ, preaching to a crowd of men (Luke 3: 1–17). He can be identified by his traditional camel-skin costume, which he wears beneath a billowing red mantle, and by the thin reed cross in his left hand. He points towards heaven, referring to the coming of Christ. When the altarpiece was intact, he would also have been pointing to the identically dressed Baptist in the main panel above, who points towards the infant Christ.