The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist

In the narrow dark space of a prison, Saint John the Baptist is awaiting execution: kneeling on the ground, his face pale and his glistening eyes looking up towards a pair of putti, his mouth half-open and his arms outstretched in sign of prayer, he chooses to submit resignedly to the will of God. Thanks to the inner strength of faith, the saint does not fear death and awaits his martyrdom almost with trepidation. One of his executioners, who has already unsheathed the sword to cut off his head, pauses for a moment, struck by the devout attitude of the saint, while the other hastens to immobilise him with a rope. A curious onlooker observes the whole scene through the bars of a small window.

Giandomenico Tiepolo painted this altar-piece – which arrived in the Museum’s collection of paintings in the early twentieth century – in 1757, still having in his eyes the works of his father, in particular the two paintings of the Martyrdom of Saint Agatha which Giambattista painted for the Basilica of Saint Anthony in Padua and for the church of Sant’Agata in Lendinara (the second is now in Berlin).

However Giandomenicopartlybreaks away from his father’s language, accentuating the pathos of the painting, toning down his colour scheme and giving the composition a more closed and compact dimension, far from the airiness and luminosity of the grandiose masterpieces for which his father was famous.