2 Comments

I love the artwork. I am always interested in seeing the different interpretations, and today I notice that the Dutch are sure Jesus will be cold coming out of the water and so an angel is nearby to wrap him in a towel (or robe?) The Mexican artist thought Jesus would be chubby, and the Italian thinks the river (Jordan?) is barely a trickle where the baptism occurred. None of these are what comes to my mind when I read the baptism verses.

Expand full comment

While the Baptism is the Sunday after Epiphany in the Catholic liturgical calendar (thus, the beginning of January), I'm going to guess that the 30-year-old Jesus was warm enough when he got dunked in the Jordan.

Most of the Met's public domain collection of Christian art with the Baptism are from the Renaissance/Baroque period, though some are from the mass-printing period, too. I tried to grab from different periods, rather than be representative of the collection.

Expand full comment