John the Baptist is the last Old Testament prophet who introduced Jesus Christ as the Savior to the people of Israel. His other name – John the Forerunner – is meant to emphasize his specific role as forerunner or precursor of Jesus Christ. The narratives of his life and ministry are contained in a number of sources – in the four canonic gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, Flavius Josephus and early Christian apocripha.
According to the Gospel of Luke, John the Baptist was born into a family of the righteous Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah, and Elizabeth, a descendant of Aaron (Luke 1: 5). The parents were old and childless. The birth of John the Baptist was foretold by the Archangel Gabriel who appeared to Zechariah while he performed his functions as a priest in the temple. Zechariah, who doubted the prophesy, was struck dumb by the Archangel until the naming of the newborn baby (Luke 1: 63, 64). John the Baptist was born in the city of Judah (possibly today’s Ein Kerem).
The earliest scene of the birth of John the Baptist was found on the frescoes of the St. Sophia church in Ohrid (the mid-11th century) and on the miniatures of the second half of the 11th century. In the late- and mid-Byzantine period, the birth scene of John the Baptist became central in John the Baptist’s infancy cycle. The central scene of the composition - a couch with the righteous Elizabeth lying on it – is derived from the “Nativity” iconography which the Christians borrowed from the antique typological cycles in the late antiquity era. While being adapted to the John the Baptist cycle, it was complemented with the episode of The Naming of John by Zechariah, whose iconography has been known since the 4th century and first encountered on the front panel of the Lateran sarcophagus (the 4th century, the Lateran Museum, Rome). In the developed life cycles, this episode could be depicted as a separate border scene such as on a Sinai icon of St. John the Baptist with 15 scenes from his life (the early 13th century) and St. John the Baptist with 16 scenes from his life from the village of Nenoxa, the Archangelsk region (16th century, the Archangels Museum of Fine Arts). In the 14th century, in line with the Paleologue art tendency to introduce household details into the composition The Nativity of John the Baptist, there appeared depictions of table with food and the scene Baby-rocking (the same scene was introduced to the composition The Nativity of the Mother of God). From the 16th – 17th century, the scene of the Nativity of John the Baptist became the essential episode of all life cycles of the saint, remaining the subject of separate festival icons – a 16th century icon from Novgorod’s Klopsky Monastery; two tablet icons from State Tretyakov Gallery (the second half of the 16th century); icons from the N.P.Likhachev collections (the 16th century, State Russian Museum). An essential episode of all surviving hagiography icons of John the Baptist, the Nativity composition alone rarely became the centerpiece of the icon such as the icons of The Nativity of John the Baptist with scenes from his life from the Intercession Cathedral at Rogozhsky cemetery in Moscow (the first third of the 16th century)
The feast day of John the Baptist is celebrated several times and is associated with different episodes from his life and veneration. July 7th (June 24th , the old style) – the Nativity of John the Baptist; September 11 (August 29th, the old style) – the Beheading of John the Baptist; October 6 (September 23rd, the old style) – the Conception of John the Baptist; January 20th (January 7th, the old style) – the Synaxis of John the Baptist; March 9th (February 24th, the old style) and June 7th (May 25th, the old style) – the Finding of John the Baptist’s Head.
Zhanna G. Belik,
Ph.D. in Art history, senior research fellow at the Andrei Rublyov Museum, custodian of the tempera painting collection.
Olga E. Savchenko,
research fellow at the Andrei Rublyov Museum.
Bibliography:
1. Ткаченко А. А., Э. П. А., Лисовой Н. Н., Артюхова Т. А., Королёв А. А., Турилов А. А., Устинова Ю. В., Иванова Ю. В. Иоанн Предтеча. // Православная энциклопедия. Том XХIV. — М.: Церковно-научный центр «Православная энциклопедия», 2010. — С. 528–577.
2. Каменнов В. Иконография Иоанна Крестителя в Восточной и Западной Церкви // ПС. 1887.
3. Лихачев Н. П. Материалы для истории русского иконописания. — СПб., 1906.
4. Haring W. The Winded St. John the Baptist // The Art Bull. — N. Y., 1922. Vol. 5. N 2. — P. 36–40.
5. Антонова В. И., Мнёва Н. Е. Каталог древнерусской живописи XIV — начала XVII веков: Опыт историко-художественной классификации. — М., 1963.
6. Антонова В. И. Древнерусское искусство в собрании П. Корина. — М., 1966.
7. Смирнова Э. С., Лаурина В. К., Гордиенко Э. А. Живопись Великого Новгорода: XV век. — М., 1982. — С. 298–299. Кат. 63.
8. Малков Ю. Г. Стенопись собора Рождества Богородицы на Возмище в Волоколамске // ДРИ. — СПб., 1997. [Вып.:] Исследования и атрибуции. — С. 267–284.
9. Творогов О. В. Сказания об Иоанне Предтече // СККДР. 1987. Вып. 1. — C. 418–421.
10. Sinai: Treasures of the Monastery of Saint Catherine. — Athens, 1990.
11. Филатов В. В. Особенности иконографии фресок Андрея Рублева в соборе Успения на Городке в Звенигороде // Искусство Древней Руси: Проблемы иконографии. — М., 1994. — С. 8–10.
12. Государственная Третьяковская Галерея: Каталог собрания — М., 1995.
13. Царевская Т. Ю. Фрески церкви Благовещения на Мячине («в Аркажах»). — Новгород, 1999.
14. Бродовая Ю. В. Новооткрытая икона «Иоанн Предтеча – Ангел пустыни с житием» из собрания ГМЗ «Коломенское»: Проблемы иконографии житийного цикла // ИХМ. — М., 2001. Вып. 5. — С. 150–168;
15. Шалина И. А. Икона «Усекновение главы св. Иоанна Предтечи с житием» из церкви Богоявления с Запсковья и псковская живопись второй четверти XVI века. // ИХМ. — М., 2007. Вып. 10. — С. 318–348.
16. Бродовая Ю. В. «Усекновение главы св. Иоанна Крестителя» в древнерусском искусстве XV – первой половине XVII в.: К проблеме сложения иконографии. // ИХМ. — М., 2004. Вып. 8. — С. 162–177.
17. Сарабьянов В. Д. Росписи боковых апсид собора Мирожского монастыря и истоки их иконографической программы. // ИХМ. — М., 2003. Вып. 7. — С. 75–84.
18. Этингоф О. Е. Византийские иконы VI – первой половины XIII веков в России. — М., 2005.
19. Брюсова В. Г. София Премудрость Божия в древнерусской литературе и искусстве. — М., 2006.
20. Бродовая Ю. В. Цикл жития св. Иоанна Крестителя в древнерусском искусстве XVI – первой половине XVII в. // Аспирантский сборник / Государственный институт искусствознания. — М., 2004. Вып. 2. — С. 3–30.
21. Пивоварова Н. В. Фрески церкви Спаса на Нередице в Новгороде: Иконографическая программа росписи. — СПб., 2002.
22. Grabar A. Les voies de la création en iconographie chrétienne. — P., 1994. —P. 182–185, 219–228.