St John in the Wilderness (Bacchus)

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St John in the Wilderness (Bacchus): Leonardo da Vinci

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Leonardo da Vinci Oil Painting - St John in the Wilderness (Bacchus)

Keywords: John, Wilderness, Bacchus

Work Overview: Artist Workshop of Leonardo da Vinci
Year 1510–1515
Type Oil on walnut panel transferred to canvas
Dimensions 177 cm × 115 cm (70 in × 45 in)
Location Louvre, Paris

Bacchus, formerly Saint John the Baptist, is a painting in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, France, based on a drawing by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is presumed to have been executed by an unknown follower, perhaps in Leonardo's workshop. Sydney J. Freedberg assigns the drawing to Leonardo's second Milan period.[1] Among the Lombard painters who have been suggested as possible authors are Cesare da Sesto,[2] Marco d'Oggiono, Francesco Melzi,[3] and Cesare Bernazzano. The painting shows a male figure with garlanded head and leopard skin, seated in an idyllic landscape. He points with his right hand off to his left, and with his left hand grasps his thyrsus and also points down to earth.

The painting originally depicted John the Baptist. In the late 17th century, between the years 1683 and 1693, it was overpainted and altered to serve as Bacchus.

Cassiano dal Pozzo remarked of the painting in its former state, which he saw at Fontainebleau in 1625, that it had neither devotion, decorum nor similitude,[5] the suavely beautiful, youthful and slightly androgynous Giovannino was so at variance with artistic conventions in portraying the Baptist – neither the older ascetic prophet nor the Florentine baby Giovannino, but a type of Leonardo's invention, of a disconcerting, somewhat ambiguous sensuality, familiar in Leonardo's half-length and upward-pointing Saint John the Baptist, also in the Louvre.[6]

The overpainting transformed the image of St. John into one of a pagan deity, by converting the long-handled cross-like staff of the Baptist to a Bacchic thyrsus and adding a vine wreath. The fur robe is the legacy of John the Baptist, but has been overpainted with leopard-spots relating, like the wreath, to Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and intoxication.

Few copies done by Leonardeschi artists are known. One of them is attributed to Bernardino Lanino (panel, 24 x 24 cm) and is held at National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. It depicts St John the Baptist in Wilderness, however, the saint is placed to a background of grotto with some sight of high rocks, a river, riders and a hanged man. Another copy of 15th-16th centuries is held at Musee Ingres, Montauban. Another copy, attributed to follower of Cesare da Sesto has been sold in Christies auction in 2008-04-23.

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The Baptist, crowned with a laurel wreath, wearing a fur garment and carrying a staff, is with his left hand possibly pointing to a spring and holding a bunch of grapes. The fur and staff can be interpreted as attributes of the Baptist, and the fruit and laurel wreath as ones belonging to the classical god of wine. Given the poor state of preservation of the work, it is difficult to decide whether the laurel wreath and grapes were actually part of the original composition. There is at any rate a text that equates St John with Bacchus: the "Ovide moralise" by Pierre Bersuire, dating from the 14th century. A design for the painting shows the naked St John, though without the attributes of Bacchus. This painting was presumably produced by Francesco Melzi in Leonardo's workshop.

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John the Baptist sits in the wilderness. With his left arm he holds a staaf. His right hand points to heaven, perhaps to indicate that baptism is the first step to the kingdom of heaven.

On John's head is a laurel wreath and with his left hand he holds a bunch of grapes. These attributes may have been added later to change John into Bacchus, the god of wine.

The painting was probably not made by the master himself but by one of his students in his workshop, Francesco Melzi. It was later transfered from panel to canvas.

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