La nascita di San Giovanni Battista (c.1635)

Gentileschi, Artemisia (1593-c.1653)

La nascita di San Giovanni Battista (The Birth of Saint John the Baptist)
c.1635
Oil on canvas, 184 x 258 cm
Museo del PradoMadrid

This canvas is one of a series of scenes from the life of Saint John the Baptist commissioned in Naples from Artemisa Gentileschi, Massimo Stanzione (The Birth of John the Baptist announced to Zacharias (P256), The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist (P257), The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (P258) and Saint John the Baptist leaving his Father’s House (P291) and a now lost one by Paolo Finoglia. They were painted for the chapel in the hermitage dedicated to this saint in the grounds of the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid. Born in Rome, Gentileschi moved to Naples on the invitation of the Spanish Viceroy Fernando Afán de Ribera, Duke of Alcalá (1583-1637). (MNP)