The Birth and Naming of John the Baptist (1496–99): Art, History and Details

The Birth and Naming of John the Baptist (1496–99) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Juan de Flandes (Netherlandish, c. 1460–1519).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Typical of Flemish art of the period, this scene suggests a comfortable home of the late 1400s in the Netherlands to frame the story of a biblical birth. Elizabeth, mother of Saint John the Baptist, rests after her labor, while her cousin, the Virgin Mary, presents the newborn to his father, Zacharias. Having lost his ability to speak when he doubted an angel’s prophecy of the child’s birth, Zacharias writes down his son’s name. At this moment, his speech is restored. This painting was once part of an altarpiece commissioned by Queen Isabella I of Castile, known as the Catholic (1451–1504), for a monastery near Burgos.

Object facts

• Title: The Birth and Naming of John the Baptist
• Date: 1496–99
• Creator attribution: Juan de Flandes (Netherlandish, c. 1460–1519)
• Culture: Flanders, early 16th Century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on wood
• Dimensions: Framed: 99 x 60 x 7.5 cm (39 x 23 5/8 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 88.4 x 49.9 cm (34 13/16 x 19 5/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Renaissance
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1975.3

A detail from the museum

Flemish artists are famed for their attention to minute detail. Here the artist paints a domestic setting from his own time period, complete with details like a brazier for heating in the lower right corner and concave mirror above the bed.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1975.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63, no. 2 (February 1976): 31–71.
• Lurie, Ann Tzeutschler. “Birth and Naming of St. John the Baptist Attributed to Juan de Flandes: A Newly Discovered Panel from a Hypothetical Altarpiece.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63, no. 5 (May 1976): 119–135.
• Merrill, Ross M. “A Technical Study: Birth and Naming of St. John the Baptist.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 63, no. 5 (May 1976): 136–145.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.