Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness

Adam Elsheimer's small paintings on copper show a remarkable ability to evoke a poetic setting for his figures. Arriving in Rome in 1600 while still in his early twenties, Elsheimer responded to the city's antique monuments and to its extraordinary artistic ferment. In this work, painted just a few years after he settled in Rome, the woodland landscape teeming with wildlife is still indebted to the northern Mannerist tradition, while the youthful saint echoes antique sculpture in a pose that is at once vulnerable and grandiose. Though Elsheimer died tragically early after only ten years in the Eternal City, his paintings exercised a powerful influence on his fellow artists in Rome and north of the Alps.

Credit: Lacy Armour Fund, Chester D. Tripp Estate Fund, European Painting General Sales Proceeds, Mrs. Albert Beveridge Fund, Rhoades Foundation