IMAGES OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

John`s clothes were made from camel`s hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. For food, he ate locusts and wild honey. Many people came from Jerusalem and Judea and all the area around the Jordan River to hear John.

One can not help but be fascinated by John the Baptist. This painted and gilded wood sculpture completed in 1438 by Donatello is my favorite version of the raggedy prophet. Anyone who consumed locusts on a regular basis was bound to have a fiery vision or two, one would think. I do not know exactly why I have been thinking about him, but when I take my walks I often see some of the downtrodden with scruffy clothes and a wrinkled/faded party-shirt from the mid-sixties, and tangled locks & beard that recall this image. We usually see his head brought by Salome to King Herod on a platter, so it`s nice to see it still attached to his body sometimes. This version makes him seem real and provocative, & perhaps burdened by his visions in the desert. He got to baptize Christ and he prophesized the Coming of Christ just as it was predicted in Isaiah. In many of the important paintings of the Renaissance, he is included with a gallery of saints. When I visited the Uffizi, I remember seeing Domenico Veneziano`s Madonna with Child painted in 1445. The rendering of John is nice here too, although he is more scantily clad and holds a sceptor. Be sure that you enlarge the painting, then hit full resolution, in order to see the detail therein. I know this painting is in the Uffizi, not the National Museum of Serbia, so be sure to note that. I should contact Wikipedia about that error. Another nice version of John the Baptist is the one by Piero Della Francesco, The Baptism of Christ-1450. John is much more graceful, melifluous and rested here. I can not say why exactly I have been seeking out his image, but he must have been a sight to behold if you could have heard him preach more than two thousand years ago. Not necessarily for religious reasons or anything, but simply as a character of interest, you see.