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The Appearance of Christ Before the People
Alexander Ivanov · Romanticism & Landscape
- Artist
- Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov (1806–1858)
- Date
- 1837–1857
- Dimensions
- 540 x 750 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
This enormous canvas shows John the Baptist on the banks of the river Jordan, pointing to the distant figure of Christ approaching across the hills. A crowd of people, some just baptised, turns to look.
A closer look
Ivanov spent twenty years in Rome working on this single painting, making hundreds of studies of landscapes, faces and figures. Every person in the crowd reacts differently to the revelation: hope, doubt, curiosity, fear, joy. In the foreground an old man rises from the water, a young man shivers in his wet clothes, a slave looks up with a smile, and Pharisees watch suspiciously. Christ, small in the distance, walks calmly forward in the clear light. The work was intended as a spiritual summary of humanity awaiting salvation.