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Baptism of Jesus
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This final picture in the Carracci series is out of order chronologically, for it was painted in 1584. But it shows all the elements which the Carracci family introduced into the Renaissance and thus introduced the Baroque era. Annibale Carracci's religious compositions are almost always set in wide spaces enhanced by luminous and deep landscapes. The figures are invariably in classical poses but these do not seem at all forced or unnatural. In this scene, John the Baptist on the right holding his attribute of the rough staff and dressed in his ragged clothes, pours water on the head of his cousin, Jesus. Since he is occupied in this fashion, he cannot point with his finger -- his usual attribute -- and so the artist provides two young men in the foreground who do the point for us.
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