Saint John the Baptist Preaching

This narrow strip once sat at the foot of an altarpiece in the church of San Fiorenzo in Perugia, right below the figure of John the Baptist. Raphael dated the altarpiece 1505. In 1768 it was sold and taken apart, and a Scottish dealer passed it to Lord Robert Spencer. He gave the main panel to his brother, the Duke of Marlborough, at Blenheim Palace, and kept the predella for himself. In 1828 it was bought at auction by the Marquess of Lansdowne, and it stayed with that family and their heirs, mostly at Bowood House, for 155 years. John stands on a grassy hillock in a red mantle over his camel skin, a thin reed cross in hand, and the men listening to him wear hats of every shape. In 1983 the National Gallery bought the panel to reunite it with the main picture. It is the only scene from that predella to survive.