Baptism of Christ by Perugino

Where? On the North wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Museums
When? 1482
Commissioned by? Pope Sixtus IV

What do you see? This fresco illustrates four different scenes:

• Center foreground: The baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. Jesus is standing in a shallow Jordan River where John the Baptist is about to pour a bowl of water on his head to baptize him. Above Jesus is the Holy Ghost in the form of a white dove. Jesus and John the Baptist are surrounded by onlookers. Directly behind Jesus are two angels holding towels for Jesus to dry himself. Behind the angels are three other men who are about to be baptized, and to the right of John is a man drying his foot as he was baptized just before Jesus. The audience of people witnessing the baptism includes many relatives and friend of Pope Sixtus IV.
• Middle left: John the Baptist preaches to an audience before the baptism of Christ.
• Middle right: Jesus preaches to his followers after the baptism.
• Top: God raises his right hand to bless Jesus. Angels surround him. To his left and right are two large angels with ribbons swirling around them. There are also 15 faces of two other types of angels: seraphs (the highest in the Christian ranking of angels) and cherubs (the second-highest in ranking). Both types of angels are associated with protecting God’s throne.

Rome is depicted in the background of the central scene. We can recognize the Pantheon on the left, a triumphal arch in the middle, and the Colosseum on the right.

The baptism of Christ: The baptism of Christ is described in Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, and Luke 3:21-23. John the Baptist was baptizing people with water in the Jordan River. Jesus arrived there and asked John to baptize him as well. While John refused at first, Jesus convinced him that this was what God wanted.

After Jesus was baptized, he came out of the water, and the Holy Spirit came down on him in the form of a dove. The dove said to Jesus: “You are my Son, the one I love. I am very pleased with you.” After that, the Holy Spirit sent Jesus into the desert for 40 days to prepare him for his public life. In John 1:29:34, John the Baptist also tells that he witnessed the Holy Spirit coming down on Jesus in the form of a dove.

Backstory: This is the only work in the Sistine Chapel that is signed. Due to the large size of the fresco, and because Perugino was commissioned at least five other frescos in the Sistine Chapel (but only three survived), he used various assistants to help him . The best-known assistant was a young Pinturicchio, who continued to develop a successful career as a painter. Pinturicchio probably painted the landscape, and the scenes on the middle left and right.

Surrounding frescos: The Baptism of Christ is the first out of seven frescos describing the life of Jesus. It is located on the right side of the North wall, directly next to The Last Judgment by Michelangelo. To the left is the second painting about the life of Jesus, which is Temptations of Christ by Botticelli.

​On the opposite wall are the seven frescos about the life of Moses. Some scenes from the life of Moses can be paired directly with scenes from the life of Jesus. In this case, the circumcision of the son of Moses in the right bottom of Moses Leaving to Egypt by Perugino is directly related to the baptism of Christ. Whereas in the Old Testament, circumcision of kids was the way to create a bond between God and the child, this was replaced by baptism in the New Testament. 

Temptations of Christ by Botticelli

Moses Leaving to Egypt by Perugino

Who is Perugino? Pietro Vannucci, better known as Pietro Perugino, was born around 1450 and died in 1523.  Perugino was an apprentice of Del Verrocchio around the same time as painters like Leonardo da Vinci and Filippino Lippi.

​Perugino was also the master of Raphael. He was one of the first Italian painters to use oil painting, a technique that was developed earlier that century by Jan van Eyck. In 1480, he was called to Rome by Pope Sixtus IV to paint several works in the Sistine Chapel. The most famous of his works is probably the Delivery of the Keys, which is also in the Sistine Chapel. 

Delivery of the Keys by Perugino

Fun fact: Perugino created six frescos in the Sistine Chapel. However, three of them have been removed to make place for The Last Judgment which Michelangelo painted between 1536 and 1541. It must not have been difficult for Michelangelo to remove the frescos of Perugino as Michelangelo was not a big fan of Perugino’s work.

​The legend goes that Michelangelo told Perugino in his face that he was an amateur painter. Indeed, at the end of the 15th century, the career of Perugino went downhill, and he mainly repeated some of the compositions he had used earlier in his life.

Interested in a Copy for Yourself? Poster or canvas.

The Last Judgment by Michelangelo

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