The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist

Around 1600 collectors wanted pictures on copper. The metal took a fine, enamel-like surface, it did not warp the way a wooden panel could, and something this size travelled easily between courts. Allori was in his sixties when he made this one, about 1601 to 1603, four decades into his service to the Medici. He set the scene at night: John the Baptist announcing the one who is coming, a lamb beside him under the standard of the Resurrection, a crowd drawn out of the dark. The landscape behind them owes its look to Northern painting, which Florentine collectors were buying and Florentine painters were studying. It is 39 by 47 centimetres, late work by a man who died in 1607.