The Baptism of Christ (1480/90): Artwork and History

The Baptism of Christ (1480/90) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Martin Schongauer German, c. 1430/50-1491.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

This luminous engraving depicts Christ being baptized by his cousin Saint John the Baptist in the River Jordan. The scene is sparsely populated; the only witnesses are God the Father, visible in a cloud, and an angel holding dry clothes for Christ’s later use. John clasps an elegantly bound volume, anachronistically referring to baptism as a sacramental rite of the Christian faith. Here John touches Christ’s forehead with two fingers, rather than pouring water over his head from his cupped hands. This distinction suggests that Schongauer’s print shows John anointing Christ with oil in the final part of the baptism ceremony.

Object facts

• Title: The Baptism of Christ
• Date: 1480/90
• Artist attribution: Martin Schongauer German, c. 1430/50-1491
• Place of origin: Germany
• Medium: Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: Plate/sheet: 15.6 × 15.8 cm (6 3/16 × 6 1/4 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1956.857

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.