Saint John the Baptist

Three Baptists by Titian survive, and their X-rays line up like a chain. Under the latest one, painted for the Escorial in the late 1560s, lies the composition of this canvas. Under this one, which the Prado dates between 1550 and 1555, lies the earliest of the three, now in the Accademia in Venice. Titian often made a second version of a picture while the first was on the easel, tracing the design across and then shifting a gesture, a stretch of landscape, a colour, so that the replica became its own painting. The saint is at a different moment here than in Venice. There he is the preacher in full flow; here he takes the flame of the Lord with his right hand laid on his chest. The picture has been in Spain since the 16th century, and Spanish painters copied it often enough that the copies are still being counted.