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The Baptism of Christ
1604–1605 · oil on canvas · KMSKA, Antwerp
For the Baptism of the Lord
Sizes
image 24×14.5 in on a 24×18 in sheet
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Hahnemühle Photo Rag, 308 gsm cotton rag · pigment inks · printed to order
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All editionsAbout this painting
A hand reaches out toward a bowed head, and above it the sky opens a lane of light for the Dove. Saint John stands in rough skins; Christ stands at the water's edge, angels crowding behind Him. Three Persons were at the Jordan, and only two could be painted: the Son and the Holy Spirit; the Father was a voice. Rubens made it for Duke Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Furlotti and Rebecchini record, for the Jesuit church of the Santissima Trinità in Mantua; the Lombardy catalogue sets it on the left wall of the presbytery, the Transfiguration on the right, and at the centre the Gonzagas adoring the Trinity, held up, a contemporary wrote, like a tapestry by flying angels. Kinga Lipinska reads the muscled bodies as a young court painter claiming Michelangelo's Sistine nudes. The Father he could not paint here waited at the centre.
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)