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
Matthew demands a sky: the heavens opened, the Spirit descending as a dove. Nancy calls Ribera's chiaroscuro violent, and reads this 1643 canvas as his second manner — the dark softened, luminous colours let in, 'the blue of the sky', after Guido Reni's Baptism in Vienna.
So the dove comes down through another painter's light. Beneath it Christ's hands are folded in prayer: the one figure here who needs no washing submits to the rite anyway. Two submissions.
In a Madrid transept it hung beside its pendant, the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. That one was destroyed in Berlin in 1945.
Sources: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, notice 574, « Le Baptême du Christ », Jusepe de Ribera — notice text · Matthew 3:16 — the heavens opened and the Spirit descending as a dove. This is the work's own scene.ref. · Base Joconde / POP (Ministère de la Culture), notice 05120002149, « Le Baptême du Christ ; Baptême de Jésus », Jusepe de Ribera, 1643, Nancy, Musée des Beaux-Arts, inv. 574 · Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Gemäldegalerie inv. 222, Guido Reni, The Baptism of Christ, c. 1622/23 · Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, dossier de presse « Ribera (1591-1652). Ténèbres et lumière », octobre 2024 · Matthew 3:14-15 (Douay-Rheims, Challoner revision)
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 8,365 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.