Saint John the Baptist

copy after Leonardo da Vinci

(Vinci 1452 - Amboise 1519)

The date of entry of the panel into the collection is not known. The origin of this painting is itself unknown and it is documented with certainty for the first time in the fidecommisso of 1833. It is probable that the acquisition of the painting, of modest quality, should be considered as an attempt to recollect, rather than to compensate for, the presence in the collection of a work sold in 1801 to "Mr. Durand of Paris" together with a group of paintings of considerable interest. It is a derivation from Leonardo's famous prototype kept in the Louvre, as can be seen from its description in an inventory of 1693: "a painting of two and a half palms of a Saint John pointing with his finger to the letters Agnus Dei, with the N. 188, with gilded frame, painted on a wooden panel, by Leonardo de Vinci". The subject represented, albeit with a different iconography, and the closeness of the measurements make  the hypothesis of an acquisition subsequent to 1801 most plausible.

Object details