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Adam Elsheimer, The Baptism of Christ

Key facts
Full title The Baptism of Christ
Artist Adam Elsheimer
Artist dates 1578 - 1610
Date made about 1599
Medium and support Oil on copper
Dimensions 28.1 × 21 cm
Acquisition credit Presented by Henry Wagner, 1924
Inventory number NG3904
Location Not on display
Collection Main Collection
The Baptism of Christ
Adam Elsheimer

God the Father sends down the Dove of the Holy Spirit as Saint John baptises Christ in the river Jordan.

The influence of the Venetian painters Veronese and Tintoretto is marked; from Tintoretto comes the compositional idea of including the prominent figure in the foreground who is removing his shoe.

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Saint Lawrence prepared for Martyrdom
Saint Lawrence prepared for Martyrdom
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On the orders of the pope, Saint Lawrence, a deacon of the early Christian Church, distributed church property to the poor in Rome. When the Roman authorities discovered what he was doing, they ordered him to hand over the treasures to the city. He refused, and when pressed to give up his Christi...
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Saint Paul on Malta
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The story of Saint Paul’s shipwreck on the island of Malta is described in Acts (28: 1–6), and Adam Elsheimer has taken advantage of the biblical description to portray a night scene: ‘And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, becau...
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Tobias and the Archangel Raphael
Tobias and the Archangel Raphael
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This scene comes from the apocryphal Book of Tobit. Old and blind, Tobit had sent his son Tobias on a long journey to collect a debt on his behalf. Here, Tobias drags an enormous fish across the ground. He is watched closely by the Archangel Raphael, who had instructed the boy to catch a fish, th...
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