Die Taufe Christi

In 1492, the year Genoese sailors were crossing the Atlantic for the Spanish crown, Venice was still the richest city in Europe, and a parish in its Castello district hired Cima da Conegliano to paint the picture over its high altar. The church kept a relic said to be a finger bone of John the Baptist, so the subject was fixed: Christ standing in the shallow Jordan while John pours water over his head, angels holding the folded garments at the left. Cima came from the mainland town of Conegliano, and he set his kind of scenery behind the sacred figures, clear light, a winding river, hill towns catching the sun. The painting still sits in its original carved marble frame, in the church it was made for.