17th century Flemish school

Flemish school of the 17th century.
"The baptism of Christ".
Relief in carved walnut wood. Pickled.
Measurements: 83 x 106 cm; 103 x 129 x 8 cm.

This relief of the baptism of Christ has been realized by means of the Renaissance technique of the "schiacciato", system of modeling in the sculptural relief used by the Romans and perfected in the 15th century by Donatello, which consists of proportionally diminishing the bulk of the relief in function of the depth that is wanted to be represented. This sculptural technique makes it possible to create a bas-relief with a minimal variation (sometimes referred to as millimeters) with respect to the background. To give the viewer the illusion of depth, the gradual decrease in the depth of the thickness is complemented by the rigorous application of the laws of perspective, which enhances the visual effect. Thus, while the characters in the foreground protrude far out of the plane (see the figure of St. John, Christ or the angels), worked in high relief, the landscape and the buildings in the background rise much less, and their details are defined with a softer, shallower chiseling. In this relief, the level of detail achieved by the author is impressive, who manages to precisely define the anatomy of the protagonists and even the folds of the fabrics.

Being the episode of the baptism of Christ, we observe St. John the Baptist pouring water over Christ, while in his left hand he holds his staff with phylactery. Christ is dressed only in a cloth of purity and adopts a gesture of humility as he bows his head while holding his two hands clasped on his chest. The Holy Spirit illuminates the entire scene. Iconographically, the theme of the Baptism of Christ is one of the oldest in Christian art because of its theological importance and the Sacrament that derives from it (which is why it has undergone variations that, at times, can be related to liturgical variations in the Sacrament of Baptism). As it is logical, it has varied according to the moment, the style and the school to which each work belongs.