The Baptism of Christ
The original, as its museum records it
Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.
The file this print is made from
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About this painting
The dove does not tear with her beak, unlike the heretics who tear good doctrine to pieces. She hovers under God's hands as heaven opens again, closed since Adam's sin; the Uffizi calls both less developed: a third hand.
Verrocchio's shop began the panel for the Vallombrosan monastery of San Salvi. Leonardo got the left angel; studies give him the light and the water. Christ's left foot is deliberately unfinished, so the water reads transparent over it.
He was baptized, says the Golden Chain, not to be cleansed but to cleanse the water. The shop gave the water away.
Sources: Uffizi Galleries object page · Finestre sull'Arte, citing Antonio Natali · Thomas Aquinas, Catena Aurea on the Gospel of Matthew, ch. 3 (on Matt. 3:16), Pseudo-Chrysostom; Oxford trans., CCEL · Marco Masseti, "The flight of the shrike. The ornithological representation in the Baptism of Christ (1470-1475 c.) by Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo da Vinci," Natural History Sciences 8(2), 2021, pp. 59-64, DOI 10.4081/nhs.2021.538 · Matthew 3:16, Douay-Rheims Bible
And Jesus being baptized, forthwith came out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened to him: and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him.
Matthew 3:16 · Douay-Rheims (Challoner), from the project’s own corpus at data/bible_drc.js
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 6,210 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.