TURCHI, ALESSANDRO, called ORBETTO or VERONESE

THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST

Signature on the stone near the foot of St. John the Baptist : ALEXANDER VERONENSIS F.

This picture in the Pushkin Museum is a model of the so-called 'light' manner of Verona painting, which was to achieve widespread fame, particularly on account of its 'night' scenes painted on slate and depicting religious subjects in artificial or nocturnal light. Other variants of this composition exist – in the Gerona Museum, in a private collection and elsewhere.

Provenance: acquired for the Hermitage from the Croz collection in Paris in 1772; transferred to the Rumyantsev Museum in 1862; in the Pushkin Museum since 1924.