Saint John the Baptist

San Polo

Saint John the Baptist
This wooden polychrome statue by Donatello is the only one remaining from the period 1450-53, following the artist’s stay in Padua. It was commissioned by the Florentine community of Venice after they had been given a chapel in the Frari church. The saint is depicted in the typical iconography of the hermit, with the leather vestments and the cartouche bearing the phrase pronounced by Christ on the banks of the River Jordan: Ecce agnus Dei.