Friday, March 26, 2010

St. John the Baptist - Happy PFF!


St. John the Baptist


Velazquez, Rodriquez de Silva Y., 1599-1660
The Art Institute of Chicago

I ponder the expression of St. John in this painting.
Maybe the artist reflected this great sadness
of St. John - because the artist knew, as told in history,
that St. John would have been about this age (early 30's) when he was beheaded.



9 comments:

  1. ..While the lamb, oblivious to his own fate, serenely enjoys his grazing.

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  2. He does seem sad...What a beautiful painting. I can't imagine having my head cut off--I've heard tales, and saw this one movie in High school for film study that scared me to death.

    (Grin)

    Gorgeous!

    Happy PFF!

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  3. I remember the Masterpiece game!!!!

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  4. Beautiful painting. What was the Masterpiece game, Viridian?

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  5. Clytie - please visit my blog at marlendy.wordpress.com to pick up the Sunshine award I have given to your blog. It is terrific and I enjoy visiting it often. I post greeting cards also that I have saved over the years. Marge

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  6. It seems to me that the artist used John's expression to foreshadow the events in his life that were to come. John the Baptist felt a great burden to warn the people to repent, so maybe his express is grief over their sin.

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  7. It's one of those paintings to contemplate about for a while...thank you for showing this! -I like that Velasquez put the lamb in the scene as well.

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