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Salvator Rosa , Italian, 1615-1673

Title

Landscape with the Baptism of Christ in the River Jordan

Date1650s

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

147 x 221 cm

Credit LinePurchased, 1856

Object numberNGI.96

DescriptionSalvator Rosa was a talented and versatile artist, with an extravagant personality. A gifted draughtsman and an excellent printmaker, his interests also included poetry and acting. Highly intellectual, he preferred to paint erudite historical themes, scenes of witchcraft, and portraits of stoic philosophers. He is best known, however, for his creation of an innovative new type of landscape. As an alternative to the idealised Arcadian views of Claude Lorrain, Rosa's landscapes comprise picturesque scenes of roughly shaped rocks and twisted trees.

Significantly, in this picture the painter has chosen to incorporate both of these landscape tendencies. On the left he has used a wide and lyrical panoramic perspective to embody the sacred episode of the Baptism of Jesus on the shores of the Jordan. By the way of contrast he has filled the right-hand side of the composition with a cluster of large warped trees and trunks.

(National Gallery of Ireland: Essential Guide, 2008)


ProvenancePurchased, Mr R. MacPherson, Rome, 1856