Saint John the Baptist

copy after Leonardo da Vinci

(Vinci 1452 - Amboise 1519)

The date of entry of the panel into the collection is unknown. It is documented with certainty for the first time in the Fideicommissary list of 1833. It is probable that the acquisition of the painting, of modest quality, should be considered as an attempt to recreate, rather than to compensate for, the existence in the collection of a work sold in 1801 to ‘Mr. Durand of Paris’ together with a group of paintings of considerable interest, as can be seen from the description in the inventory of 1693. It may be a derivation from Leonardo’s famous prototype kept in the Louvre. The subject depicted, albeit with a different iconography, and the closeness of the measurements make the hypothesis of an acquisition after 1801 most plausible.

Object details

Commentary

The date of entry of the panel into the Borghese Collection is unknown, although Della Pergola speculated that it had been acquired after 1801 (1955, pp. 78-79). Indeed, it is documented with certainty for the first time in the Fideicommissary list of 1833.

In fact, the St John mentioned in previous inventories, from that of 1693 to that of 1790, would appear to be identifiable with the St John the Baptist by Leonardo, now in the Louvre (inv. 775). This was sold in 1801 to the antiquarian ‘Durand of Paris’ together with other works including Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus, now in the National Gallery in London (Della Pergola 1955). The inventory of 1693 described it as ‘a painting of two and a half palms of a St John pointing with his finger to the letters Agnus Dei, No. 188, with a gilded frame on a panel by Leonardo da Vinci’. The panel now in the collection, of inferior quality, ‘without value’ (Longhi 1928, p. 354), is therefore a variant of the famous model, which might be seen as a purchase by the Borghese family in an attempt to recreate, rather than compensate for, the previously sold St John the Baptist.

Gabriele De Melis