_Venice Academy_]
His life work was now consummated, but he was not permitted to see the
fruits of his labors. For his open denunciation of King Herod he was
cast into prison, and was soon after beheaded.
In our picture St. John stands in a mountain glen preaching. As his
glance is directed out of the picture it is as if his audience were in
front, and we among their number. His pointing finger seems to single
out some one to whom he directs attention, and we know well who it is.
This must be that day when seeing Jesus approach the prophet exclaimed,
"Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. This is
he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me;
for he was before me."[32] The lamb which lies on the ground beside him
is the outward symbol of his words. The slender reed cross he carries is
an emblem of his mission as the prophet of the crucified one.
From head to feet the Baptist impresses us with his muscular power.
There is no hint of fastings and vigils in this strong athletic figure.
Here, as elsewhere. Titian will have nothing of that piety which is
associated with a delicate and puny physique. He is the art apostle of
that "muscular Christianity" of which Charles Kingsley used to preach.
The Baptist's skin is bronzed and weather-beaten from his active
out-of-door life. Yet the face shows the stern and sombre character of
the prophet. There are traces of suffering in the expression, as of one
who mourns profoundly the evil in the world. Something of the fanatic
gleams in the eyes, and the effect is heightened by the wild masses of
unkempt hair which frame the countenance.
Nature too seems to be in a somewhat wild and sombre mood in this spot.
A dark bank rises abruptly at the side, and St. John stands in its
shadow, just under a tuft of coarse grass and bushes jutting from its
upper edge. The sky is overcast with clouds. A narrow stream falls over
a rocky bed, and in the distance slender trees lift their feathery
branches in the air. In Titian's time landscape painting had not
developed into an independent art, but was an important part of figure
compositions. Our painter always took great pains with his landscapes,
making them harmonize, as does this, with the character of the figures.
The picture reminds us of the St. Christopher which we have examined,
being, like it, a study direct from the life of some athletic model. Yet
here we see to better advantage Titian's work in modelling the nude
figure. We can understand that one reason why he could make a draped
figure so lifelike was because he studied the anatomy of the human body
in undraped models. The figure here stands out almost as if it were done
in sculpture.