Il polittico di San Giovanni

Around 1455 Rogier van der Weyden laid out the life of John the Baptist across three panels, reading left to right like a page. On the left he is born, in the middle he baptises Christ in the river Jordan, and on the right he is beheaded, with Salome stepping forward to take the severed head onto a plate. What holds the three scenes together is the frame Rogier painted into the picture itself. Each panel sits inside a carved stone archway, and those arches are crowded with small sculpted figures and reliefs telling further stories from the lives of Christ and the saint. It is a smaller work than his grand altarpieces, made for a merchant from Pisa named Battista Agnelli for a church in Bruges, probably for a side altar or for private prayer. The oak it is painted on was ready for use around 1454.