Saint John the Baptist in the Desert

John the Baptist was Florence's own saint. His head was struck on the gold florin, the baptistery in the middle of the city carries his name, and the feast on 24 June was the city's biggest day of the year. Around 1613 Allori painted him alone in the wilderness, on a canvas meant for a private apartment rather than an altar.

That apartment belonged to Cardinal Carlo de' Medici, a son of Grand Duke Ferdinando I and one of the busiest collectors in the family. The picture stayed with him until he died in 1666, when it went into the grand-ducal collection with the rest of what he owned. Allori was the most sought-after painter in Florence in those years, and the Medici took very nearly everything he managed to finish.