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Geertgen tot Sint Jans, Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness, c. 1490
John sits on a rock in a green valley and broods, his head propped on his hand, one bare foot rubbing over the other. Beside him lies the lamb. It is not a desert: there are trees, a stream, animals and birds.
Geertgen lived with the Knights of St John in Haarlem, which gave him his name: “little Gerard of the brothers of St John”. John the Baptist was the patron of the order. The small panel was made for private prayer, and its landscape is among the earliest in Dutch painting that could be walked into.
The prophet as a man deep in thought.
One foot rubs over the other, a small restless movement in a still picture.
The lamb, with a fine halo: “Behold the Lamb of God.”
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