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I post about Jesus Christ Superstar, the Rebelka Judas comic, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Corpus Christi by Terence McNally, and a bunch of other media that focuses on Jesus and Judas. I also sometimes post my own Jesus and apostles designs. You can find my art under the tag #mythos' art tag. I also post fic on AO3 sometimes, and advertise it under the tag #mythos' fic tag.

Carlo Maratti was one of the most prominent and prolific painters working in the classical tradition in seventeenth-century Rome. Here, he illustrates the scene from the Gospel of John in which John the Baptist identifies the new prophet. The subject offered artists the opportunity to depict the verdant, idealized landscape that is the customary setting for this biblical event. Landscapes appealed to collectors, and a relatively small picture, such as this one, could be executed without a patron and exhibited by the artist for sale. This painting remains in its original frame. Its symmetry, simplicity, and classical lines made this an especially popular type in Rome from about 1680 to 1750. The artist used it so frequently that it was later called a “Maratti frame.”

Scarsellino was born and worked in Ferrara but was strongly influenced by painting in Venice, where he likely trained during the 1570s. Formerly attributed to Jacopo Tintoretto, this work bears many of the hallmarks of sixteenth-century Venetian painting: a rustic outdoor setting, dramatic contrasts of light and dark, rich color, and a loose, gestural style of depicting drapery with “lightning bolt” strokes that index the rapid movements of the brush. Although the Sea of Galilee gleams placidly in the distance, a gust of wind blows in the foreground, lifting Peter’s cape. According to the book of Matthew, the disciple saw Christ walking on water and tried to swim toward him; frightened by strong winds, he began to drown, until Christ saved him. Three other disciples visibly react to the scene from their fishing boat. As dawn breaks on the horizon, light surrounds Christ’s head like an aureole. The expressive gestures and luminous seascape lend the scene an urgent, ecstatic quality.