The Youthful Saint John the Baptist Seated in a Landscape (recto); Unidentified Figure Composition (Dido and Aeneas?) (verso) Gm-00046201

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (Spanish, 1617–1682) Saint John the Baptist appears as an idealized youth rather than as a young child, his more traditional representation. He sits in the wilderness, holding his reed cross with his left hand and the Paschal Lamb with his right. The subject derives from a passage in the Gospel, "John looked towards Jesus and said, 'Behold the Lamb of God.'"(John 1:36)

Bartolomé Esteban Murrillo communicated the same message here through John's direct visual engagement of the viewer's attention. Executed in Murillo's early pen style, the drawing displays his distinctive use of chiaroscuro and structured hatching.