The Preaching of St John the Baptist (detail)

1634 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

religious

Rather as some figures in the crowd attend less to the preacher than to people nearby, the viewer's glance is drawn to secondary figures, especially the spectacularly plumed soldier in the centre of the painting. Only a firsthand inspection of the painting allows one to appreciate the variety of intriguing individuals who surround John the Baptist. Figures mounted on camels, horses, and donkeys represent different social stations; women range from apparent princesses to impoverished peasants.

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The Preaching of St John the Baptist (detail)

About the Artist

Bartholomeus Breenbergh

1598 – 1657

Dutch painter, with Poelenburgh the leading pioneer of the taste for Italianate landscapes in the Netherlands. Breenbergh spent most of the 1620s in Italy and thereafter worked in Amsterdam. His style as a painter is very similar to Poelenburgh's, his biblical and mythological characters set in well-balanced views of the Roman Campagna, often complete with classical ruins. His drawings are much fresher and bolder, and have often passed under the name of Claude, as is the case with two examples in Christ Church, Oxford. Late in his career Breenbergh turned to figure painting.

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