Current knowledge

After (?) Antonio Allegri Correggio

Saint John the Baptist

Royal Collection 400120
Current measurements: 
176.3cm x 106.6cm
Date: 
c.1600

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.

Sale Inventory c.1649-51
Walpole Society reference (1972):