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
Sizes
About this painting
Three Persons are at the Jordan; only two can be painted. Matthew gives the Son in the water and the Spirit as a dove, the Father a voice from heaven.
The canvas took the left wall of the presbytery in Mantua's Jesuit church of the Santissima Trinità, the Transfiguration the right, and at the centre the Gonzaga family adored three Persons carried like a tapestry by flying angels.
The muscled bodies borrow from Michelangelo's Sistine nudes: a young court painter aligning himself with Rome. The Father he could not paint was on the wall this one was angled toward.
Sources: Object metadata: date 1604-1605, oil on canvas, 411 x 675 cm, inv. 707, KMSKA Antwerp · Barbara Furlotti and Guido Rebecchini, 'The Art of Mantua: Power and Patronage in the Renaissance,' J. Paul Getty Museum, 2008 · Kinga Lipinska, 'From Giotto to Rubens: The Baptism of the Lord in Painting,' Liturgical Arts Journal, 8 January 2019 · Description of John pouring water over Christ and dove/light detail in this composition · Lombardia Beni Culturali, catalogue record MN020-00075, 'La famiglia Gonzaga in adorazione della SS.ma Trinità, Rubens, Pieter Paul' · Finestre sull'Arte, 'An exhibition in Mantua to learn about autographs documenting Rubens' Mantua period' · Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, collection notice, 'La Transfiguration', Pierre-Paul Rubens · Matthew 3:17 (with 3:13 for the Jordan), Douay-Rheims (Challoner)
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 10,406 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.