Saint John the Baptist
Leonardo's last great religious figure rises from a nearly black ground, smiling toward the viewer while one finger points beyond the frame. The painting is in Room 710 of the Louvre.
- c. 1508–1519
- Oil on walnut panel
About Leonardo da Vinci
A figure built out of darkness
John turns toward the viewer from a background with no visible landscape or architecture. His right hand crosses his body and the raised index finger points upward. A reed cross is barely visible beside him. The direct gaze and half smile make the encounter feel less like a distant religious scene than a person quietly insisting that the viewer look beyond him.
Leonardo softened the boundaries of the face, curls, shoulder, and hand so that light appears to bring the figure forward and darkness takes him back. The effect is especially concentrated because the panel is only 72.9 centimetres high: a single body, one gesture, and almost no setting.
Why John points upward
John the Baptist is the Christian forerunner who announces Christ. The raised finger turns that role into the painting's main action. It directs attention away from John's own face and toward what is not shown: the divine figure he has come to announce.
That tension is what gives the portrait its energy. John looks straight at us, but his hand refuses to let the encounter stop with him. Leonardo had used related pointing gestures elsewhere; here he stripped the idea down until the finger becomes the clearest line in the picture.
A late Leonardo in the Louvre
The Louvre dates the painting broadly from about 1508 to 1519, the last eleven years of Leonardo's life. Its inventory number is INV 775, and the museum records the support as walnut rather than canvas.
The painting is currently displayed in Room 710 on Level 1 of the Denon wing, near Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks and Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. Room assignments can change, so check the Louvre collection record before a special visit.
The same room makes a compact Leonardo sequence: compare John's isolated gesture with the interlocking group in Virgin of the Rocks, the family movement of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, and the smaller portrait encounter of the Mona Lisa.
Timeline
c. 1508–1519
Leonardo develops the painting during the final phase of his career.
1519
Leonardo dies at Clos Lucé in France, providing the latest possible date for the work.
Today
The painting belongs to the Louvre as INV 775 and is displayed in Room 710.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Saint John the Baptist pointing upward?
The gesture expresses John's role as the forerunner who directs attention toward Christ. Leonardo makes the pointing finger the picture's clearest action while leaving the object of that gesture outside the frame.
How big is Leonardo's Saint John the Baptist?
The painted walnut panel is 72.9 centimetres high and 56.3 centimetres wide, about 28.7 by 22.2 inches.
Where is Saint John the Baptist in the Louvre?
The Louvre currently lists it in Room 710 on Level 1 of the Denon wing. Its inventory number is INV 775; check the museum's live record because gallery assignments can change.
