Italian, Florentine Renaissance Terracotta of the Head of the Young St John the Baptist

Period: 1500-1600

Origin: Italy

Medium: Terracotta

Literature: The character of this head is very distinctive and the expressive modelling points to the influence of Verrocchio's presumed master Donatello who also sculpted images of St John the Baptist.
St John the Baptist has always been held in high regard by the Monastic order as by his solitary and austere life in the desert he was considered to have been a monk himself. In art he is represented as a prophet and a baptiser. His association with baptism made him especially familiar and popular to the medieval populace. His image was frequently seen in statues dressed in skins and pointing to the lamb, Agnus Dei, lying on a book, with a cross in his other hand. Sometimes the Gospel text was interpreted as meaning that he was dressed in the entire skin of a camel, but this may have had its origins in medieval drama.