The Baptism of Christ1500–05
Christ stands in the river Jordan as John the Baptist pours water over his head, with angels in attendance and a serene landscape of feathery trees stretching into the distance. More about this work
About this work
Christ stands in the river Jordan as John the Baptist pours water over his head, with angels in attendance and a serene landscape of feathery trees stretching into the distance. Perugino, the leading painter of central Italy around 1500 and the teacher of Raphael, was famous for exactly this calm symmetry, sweet-faced figures and luminous, open landscape. This panel is one of four scenes from the life of Christ by Perugino in the Art Institute, painted in the early 1500s on wood and later transferred to canvas.
Written by Ochre Editions.
What you’re looking at
A work made of tempera on panel, transferred to canvas.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Tempera
- Pigment bound with egg yolk. It dries in minutes and can’t be blended wet, so painters built up form with fine, hatched strokes. It was Europe’s main panel technique before oil.
Perugino
Italian, c. 1450/55–1523
Pietro Vannucci took the name Perugino from Perugia, the chief city of his native Umbria, and trained in Florence, probably alongside Leonardo in Verrocchio’s studio. In the early 1480s he was among the painters of the Sistine Chapel walls, where his Delivery of the Keys sets calm figures before a vast, ordered piazza. His serene, symmetrical style and soft landscapes made him one of the most sought-after painters in Italy, and the young Raphael learned much from him.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Renaissance
European art from about 1400 to 1600, when painters rediscovered perspective and the classical past.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1933.1023
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
