The Baptism of Christ is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Pietro Perugino

Pietro Perugino

Pietro Perugino , born Pietro Vannucci, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance...

 and his workshop, executed around 1482 and located in the Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and its decoration that was frescoed throughout by Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio...

, Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

.

History

The commission of the work originated in 1480, when Perugino was decorating a chapel in the Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. Pope Sixtus IV

Pope Sixtus IV

Pope Sixtus IV , born Francesco della Rovere, was Pope from 1471 to 1484. His accomplishments as Pope included the establishment of the Sistine Chapel; the group of artists that he brought together introduced the Early Renaissance into Rome with the first masterpiece of the city's new artistic age,...

 was pleased by his work, and decided to commission him also the decoration of the new Chapel he had built in the Vatican Palace. Due to the size of the work, Perugino was later joined by a group of painters from Florence, including Botticelli

Sandro Botticelli

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, better known as Sandro Botticelli was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance...

, Ghirlandaio

Domenico Ghirlandaio

Domenico Ghirlandaio was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. Among his many apprentices was Michelangelo.-Early years:Ghirlandaio's full name is given as Domenico di Tommaso di Currado di Doffo Bigordi...

 and others.

Perugino's assistants in the Sistine Chapel included Pinturicchio

Pinturicchio

Bernardino di Betto, called Pintoricchio or Pinturicchio was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He acquired his nickname, Pintoricchio , because of his small stature, and he used it to sign some of his works....

, Andrea d'Assisi, Rocco Zoppo or, less likely, Lo Spagna

Lo Spagna

Lo Spagna was a painter of the High-Renaissance, active in central Italy. His name was Giovanni di Pietro, but known as Lo spagno because he was born in Spain....

 or Bartolomeo della Gatta

Bartolomeo della Gatta

Bartolomeo della Gatta , born Pietro di Antonio Dei, was an Italian painter, illuminator, and architect. He was the son of a goldsmith. He was a colleague of Fra Bartolommeo. In 1468, Bartolomeo became a monk in the Order of Camaldoli, probably in the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in...

, but the attribution of details to them is disputed.

Description

The fresco of the Baptism of Christ is the first on the wall on the left of the altar, and parallels Moses Leaving to Egypt and the Circumcision of Elezier facing it on the opposite wall, also by Perugino's workshop. The baptism was in fact considered by Augustine and other early Christian writers as a kind of "spiritual circumcision".

The scene follows a symmetrical pattern, typical of Perugino. In the center is the Jordan River flowing towards the observer and reaching the feet of Jesus and John

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...

, who is baptizing the former. A dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit, descends from the sky; it is sent by God, represented within a luminous cloud and flanked by flying seraphims and cherubims. The landscape includes a symbolic view of Rome, recognizable by a triumphal arch, the Colosseum

Colosseum

The Colosseum, or the Coliseum, originally the Flavian Amphitheatre , is an elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, the largest ever built in the Roman Empire...

 and the Pantheon. The thin trees are typical of the Umbrian school and of Perugino in particular.

At the sides are two secondary episodes: the Baptist (left) and Jesus (right) preaching at the crowd. The central scene also features two kneeling angels who are keeping a towel: these are elements inspired by Flemish paintings

Early Netherlandish painting

Early Netherlandish painting refers to the work of artists active in the Low Countries during the 15th- and early 16th-century Northern renaissance, especially in the flourishing Burgundian cities of Bruges and Ghent...

, and can be seen in works by Hugo van der Goes

Hugo van der Goes

Hugo van der Goes was a Flemish painter. He was, along with Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling and Gerard David, one of the most important of the Early Netherlandish painters.-Biography:...

 and in the Portinari Triptych

Portinari Triptych

The Portinari Altarpiece or Portinari Triptych is an oil on wood triptych painting by the Flemish painter Hugo van der Goes representing the Adoration of the shepherds....

. At the sides, in the foreground, are portraits of contemporary characters, normally rare in Perugino, but in this case spurred by their presence in the works by Ghirlandaio, who was also working in the Sistine Chapel.

The fresco is surmounted by a frieze with the signature OPVS PETRI PERVSINI · CASTRO PLEBIS.