The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 19, 2024

Baptism of Christ

Baptism of Christ

1580s

workshop of Jacopo Tintoretto

(Italian, 1518–1594)
Framed: 200 x 286.5 x 14 cm (78 3/4 x 112 13/16 x 5 1/2 in.); Unframed: 169 x 251.4 cm (66 9/16 x 99 in.)
Location: not on view

Description

Based on a passage from the New Testament book of Matthew, this work depicts Saint John the Baptist performing Christ's baptism in the river Jordan, during which the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove. The powerful modeling of the bodies and luminous color characterize High Renaissance painting in Venice. Because of Tintoretto's pioneering use of rich color, his work was a crucial source for many later artists.
  • 1738-1775 Count Schulenberg (Zell), sold, Christie's, London, April 12-13, 1775, to William Markham, Bishop of Chester;
    by inheritance to his son, Colonel William T. Markham, by 1853 until at least 1869;
    Captain R. A. Markham, until at least 1910;
    E. G. Markham, London and Southcliff, Bembridge, Isle of Wight, until 1923;
    [Durlacher Brothers, London, from 1923 until at least 1929];
    Arthur Sachs, Paris and New York, by 1931;
    [Jacques Seligman & Co., New York], sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1950.
  • Thode, Henry. Tintoretto. Bielefeld und Liepzig, Germany: Velhagen & Klasing, 1901. Mentioned: p. 108; Reproduced: p. 139
    Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell'Arte Italiana. Milano: U. Hoepli, 1901. Mentioned: Vol. IX, pt. 4,P. 615
    Holborn, John Bernard Stoughton. Jacopo Robusti Called Tintoretto. London, United Kingdom: Bell, 1903. Reproduced: p. 104
    Bryan, Michael, and George Charles Williamson. Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers. New York: Macmillan, 1903. Mentioned: Vol. IV, p. 261
    D'Anvers, N. Tintoretto. London, United Kingdom: G. Newnes, 1905. Reproduced: p. XLIV
    Thieme, Ulrich, Felix Becker, Fred. C. Willis, and Hans Vollmer. Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1907. Mentioned: Vol. XXXIII, P. 194
    Graves, Algernon. Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912. London: Graves, 1913. Mentioned: Vol. 3, P. 1313
    Bercken, Erich von der, and August L. Mayer. Jacopo Tintoretto. München, Germany: R. Piper & Co, 1923. Mentioned: vol. I, p. 194-196; Reproduced: vol. II, pl. 89
    Pittaluga, Mary. Il Tintoretto. Bologna, Italy: N. Zanichelli, 1925. Reproduced: p. 257
    Fosca, François. Tintoret. Paris, France: A. Michel, 1929. Reproduced: p. 147
    Venturi, Lionello. Pitture italiane in America. Milano, Italy: U. Hoepli, 1931. Reproduced: pl. ccccvn
    Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America. New York, NY: E. Wyhe, 1933. Reproduced: vol. III, pl. 547
    Barbantini, Nino. La mostra del Tintoretto: catalogo delle opere. Venezia, Italy: Ca' Pesaro, 1937. Reproduced: p. 179
    Museo del Prado, Fernando Alvarezde Sotomayor, and Paul Wescher. Les chefs-d'œuvre du Musée du Prado. Bâle: Les Éditions Holbein, 1939. Mentioned: P. 36, no. 75
    Bouchage, Luc. "Louvre to California: Today's Collectors: Arthur Sachs." ARTnews XLV (October 1946): 75. Mentioned: P. 75
    Howe, Thomas C., Jr. "The Arthur Sachs Collection." Bulletin of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor IV, no. 7 (November 1946): 58-63. Mentioned: P. 59
    Tietze, Hans. Tintoretto: the Paintings and Drawings. With 300 Illus. London, United Kingdom: Phaidon Press; Distributed in the U.S.A. by Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1948 Reproduced: p. 348
    Francis, Henry S. "Baptism of Christ by Tintoretto." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art XXXVIII, no. 2 (February, 1951):25-26. Mentioned: p. 25-26; Reproduced: p. 32-25
    Comstock, Helen. " The Connoisseur in America: A Venetian XVI Century Painting." The Connoisseur 128, no. 522 (August 1951): 61-68. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 61-62
    Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisition Press Release,” January 1952, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance; A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places. Venetian School. New York: Phaidon Publishers; distributed by Garden City Books, 1957. Mentioned: Vol. I, P. 171; Reproduced: Vol. II, pl. 1301
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 416 archive.org
    Milliken, William Mathewson. The Cleveland Museum of Art. New York, NY: H.N. Abrams, 1958. Reproduced: p. 36
    Canaday, John. Metropolitan Seminars in Art. New York, NY: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1959. Reproduced: p. 29, pl. E12
    Seligman, Germain. Merchants of Art: 1880-1960; Eighty Years of Professional Collecting. New York, NY: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1962. Reproduced: p. 99
    Wethey, Harold E. El Greco and His School. Princeton, NJ.: Princeton University Press, 1962. Reproduced: vol. II, p. 35
    Jaffe, Michael. “Cleveland Museum of Art: The Figurative Arts of the West, c. 1400-1800.” Apollo: The International Magazine for Collectors 78 (December 1963): 457–467. Mentioned: P. 460; reproduced: P. 462, fig. 3
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 94 archive.org
    Alsop, Joseph, and Sherman E. Lee. Treasures of the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York, NY.: Art in America, 1966. Reproduced: p. 28
    Dürst, Hans Joachim. Alessandro Magnasco. Teufen, Switzerland: Niggli, 1966. Mentioned: p. 100; Reproduced: p. 177, no. 25
    Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967. Reproduced: no. 142
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 94 archive.org
    De Vecchi, Pierluigi. L'opera completa del Tintoretto. Milano, Italy: Rizzoli, 1970. Mentioned: p. 124; Reproduced: no. 246
    Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972. Mentioned: p. 199, p. 277, p. 574
    Museo del Prado. Museo del Prado: catálogo de las pinturas. Madrid, Spain: El Museo, 1972. Reproduced: p. 688, no. 397
    Rossi, Paola and Rodolfo Pallucchini. Tintoretto. Milano, Italy: Electa, 1990. Mentioned: Vol. II, p. 224, no. 432; Reproduced: vol. III, p. 577, fig. 550
    Jaffé, Michael. Rubens and Italy. Oxford, United Kingdom: Phaidon, 1977. Mentioned: p. 37, p. 73, p. 109, n. 72, p. 115, n. 37; Reproduced: Pl. 244
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 109 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Mentioned: p. 434-436; Reproduced: p. 435
    Osler, W. Roscoe. Tintoretto. London, United Kingdom: S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1882. Reproduced: p. 97
    Colnaghi Foundation, and Rubenshuis (Antwerp, Belgium). David Bowie's Tintoretto: Angel Foretelling the Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. London : Colnaghi Foundation, 2017. Mentioned: p. 104; Reproduced: p. 105, fig. 88
    Tintoretto, Benjamin van Beneden, Irene Brooke, Maja Neerman, Christina Currie, Xavier F. Salomon, and John Julius Norwich. David Bowie's Tintoretto: The Lost Church of San Geminiano. 2019. Reproduced and mentioned: pp. 120-121; Fig. 108 and Fig. 108b
    Paintings in the Cleveland Museum of Art: Picture Book No. 4 . [Cleveland]: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1952. Reproduced: 56-57 archive.org
  • British Institution. London, United Kingdom (1859).
    Leeds, United Kingdom (1868).
    Exhibition of the Works of the Old Masters. Royal Academy, London, United Kingdom (1873).
    In Memoriam: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-April 7, 1958).
    The Venetian Tradition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 8, 1956-January 1, 1957).
    Exhibition of the Arthur Sachs Collection. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA (July 22-October 18, 1946); California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA (1947).
  • {{cite web|title=Baptism of Christ|url=false|author=Jacopo Tintoretto|year=1580s|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1950.400