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Saint John the Baptist in a Landscape
Petrus Christus, c. 1445
This painting is attributed to Petrus Christus, who worked in Bruges and was probably a pupil and successor of Jan van Eyck. The Cleveland Museum of Art says that the saint's face and the treatment of his cloak are typical of Christus, though his paintings have often been confused with van Eyck's.
Christus shows John the Baptist as an isolated, monumental figure without the hairshirt or other usual signs. The museum traces this approach to Claus Sluter's sculpture of Saint John at Champmol and to manuscript painters working for Philip the Bold and his brother Jean de Berry. John holds the Lamb of God, a symbol of Christ's sacrifice.
The panel is tiny and tall, about 40 by 12.5 centimetres. After Christus died, Hans Memling became the next great painter in Bruges.
From the museum record
| Artist | Petrus Christus |
|---|---|
| Date | c. 1445 |
| Medium | Oil on panel |
| Size | Unframed: 40.2 x 12.5 cm |
| Museum | The Cleveland Museum of Art |
| Credit line | Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund |
| Accession number | 1979.80 |
| Licence | Open Access (CC0) |
Source: The Cleveland Museum of Art collection record. Facts such as dates, sizes and credit lines come from that record. The write-up above was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the museum record and standard references. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
