Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness

This Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness is characteristic of the devotional half-length saints that Strozzi produced throughout his career. According to Soprani, Strozzi began painting 'qualche mezza figura d'un San Francesco, d'una Santa Chiara o d'altro santo del Paradiso' ('some half-length figures of a Saint Francis, a Saint Clare, or another saint of Paradise') during his years as a Capuchin friar (R. Soprani, Le vite de' pittori, scoltori et architetti genovesi, Genoa, 1674, p. 156), establishing a category of intimate devotional images that remained a specialty of his production.

The Baptist gestures toward his reed cross staff, from which hangs a scroll inscribed Ecce Agnus Dei. His intense gaze and dramatically lit torso reflect the Caravaggesque naturalism of Strozzi's mature Genoese work, while the vigorous handling of the muscular anatomy and rich impasto of the fleece demonstrate his confident brushwork. The composition relates to other single-figure devotional canvases such as his Saint Catherine of Alexandria (Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art) and Saint Cecilia (Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art), recorded in the 1621 inventory of Giovan Carlo Doria.