Saint John the Baptist

This work, attributed in the inventory to Correggio, is one of Charles’s acquisitions as Prince of Wales during his visit to Madrid in 1623 and it remains in the Royal Collection today.

In the past, experts have doubted its attribution to Correggio and given it to a later artist working after the Emilian master around 1600. It is certainly representative of the left-hand portion of a triptych painted by Correggio c.1530 for the high altar of S. Maria della Misericordia in Correggio. It has been added to over the years which accounts for the discrepancy between its current and original measurements. As part of the visualisation, we have cropped it to represent the work’s original format.

Van der Doort c.1639

Antonio Correggio

A high narrow piece, standing John the Baptist, holding cane cross in his left hand and pointing forwards with his right, almost-life-size, full-length

Walpole Society reference (1960): 
WS 15, № 6
Measurements (Van der Doort): 
5ft 1in x 1ft 8in (154.9 x 50.8cm)
Medium: 
canvas
Light: 
light from the right
Provenance: 
from Spain when Prince of Wales
Gift / Exchange / Bought / Inherited: 
bought
Original Manuscript page number: 
MS. Ash. 1514, f. 18
Charles II inventory c1666: 
Whitehall, № 256, 155 x 51
Identification certainty: 
Identified
Sale Inventory c.1649-51

Correggio