Il battesimo di Cristo

This is the center of a folding altarpiece that Gerard David made in Bruges in the first years of the 16th century, paid for by a local official named Jan des Trompes, who had himself and his family painted kneeling on the wings. In the middle panel John the Baptist pours water over Christ in the river Jordan, an angel holds the folded clothes, and the dove of the Holy Spirit hovers above. What people notice most is the setting. David filled the foreground with carefully observed plants and flowers and stretched a soft green Flemish landscape into the distance, each leaf and blade painted as if studied outdoors. The Jordan here looks a great deal like the quiet countryside around Bruges.