Saint John the Baptist

Abstract

In the confessio of San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome is a polychrome wood sculpture of Saint John the Baptist. Originally attributed to Donatello, the sculpture was reattributed in the twentieth century to Donato da Formello, a painter-sculptor active in the second half of the sixteenth century. Da Formello’s authorship is supported by a seventeenth-century account by Pietro Rossini that mentions his name in connection with the work. Originally placed in the Baptistery—a separate neighbouring building—the sculpture was later painted to resemble bronze, likely in the eighteenth or nineteenth century. In the past 30 years, bronzing was removed to reveal the original polychromy. Today, a near-identical bronze version, cast in 1772 by Luigi Valadier, stands in the Baptistery, replacing the sixteenth-century wooden original. On the base is the Latin inscription “Prepare the way for the Lord.” Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.