The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist

You have to search for the preacher. John the Baptist stands in the shadows on an improvised pulpit, long-haired and bearded, pointing as he tells the crowd that someone greater is coming after him. Some of the listeners look like people of Haarlem, where Cornelis signed and dated this canvas in 1602. Others picnic, chat or climb for a better view, and on the left five men in exotic headdresses stand for the Pharisees and Sadducees who, in Matthew's Gospel, came out to hear John.

Scenes of John preaching in the wilderness were popular in the Netherlands, and the National Gallery suggests they may have touched a live question. From 1566 Calvinist ministers had drawn large crowds to sermons in the open fields outside the towns, because they were barred from the churches. The broad landscape, fading from green to blue hills, follows a model set by the painter and writer Karel van Mander. The Gallery bought the picture in 1978.