Neri di Bicci
Saint John the Baptist Leaving for the Desert
Florence, 1470
Tempera on wood
23.8 x 37.8 cm
The young John the Baptist travels from the city to the desert to preach about Jesus, his maternal cousin. He leaves his disheartened parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth, and doesn’t look back. This is a very rare subject in Christian imagery.
Neri di Bicci was the grandson of Lorenzo di Bicci (about 1350–1427), and son of Bicci di Lorenzo (1373-1452), both artists. Over the course of three generations, the Bicci workshop produced thousands of paintings for patrons across Florence. When Neri di Bicci was in charge, he recorded each commission in his Ricordanze (record book), which remains intact and on display in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. On 19 July 1470, Neri di Bicci wrote:
‘I remember that I, Neri di Bicci, made for Domenicho di Giovanni Baroli, the woolworker, an altarpiece that is in the manner of the ancients […] in which he wants the picture of the Annunciation and the angel and God the Father and at the foot, in the predella, the Pieta, Saint Mary Magdalen, and Saint Margaret, Saint John as a child going into the desert, and the angel Raphael with Tobias.’
This panel of John entering the desert once formed the far-left edge of a predella, a horizontal panel that runs along the bottom edge of an altarpiece. The other predella segments and the main panel are now lost.
The patron, Domenicho di Giovanni Baroli, decided each of the subjects depicted in this altarpiece. Notice how this his profession as a woolworker is playfully reproduced in John’s woollen tunic.
Purchased 1950 (No. 50.5)
Further reading:
Neri di Bicci, Le Ricordanze, ed. Bruno Santi, Pisa, 1976, p. 352.
Thomas, Anabel, ‘Neri di Bicci’s Young St John the Baptist going into the desert: A predella re-connected to its panel’, Apollo, 143, 1996, pp. 3-7.
Dixon, E, ‘The Florentine Wool Trades in the Middle Ages: A Bibliographical Note’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 12, 1898, pp. 151-79.
Holmes, Megan, ‘Neri di Bicci and the Commodification of Artistic Values in Florentine Painting’, in The Art Market in Italy, ed. M. Fantoni et al., Ferrara, 2003, pp. 3-223.
