Saint John the Baptist between Saint Francis, Saint Jerome, Saint Sebastian and Saint Anthony Of Padua – Perugia
Giorgio Vasari, in his opus “Le Vite”, mentions this work, together with the Resurrection of Christ now at the Vatican Museums, in the church of San Francesco al Prato in Perugia, placed over the altar adjacent to the sacristy; Modestini, in 1787, recalls it inside the chapel Massimi. The artwork was then transferred in France during the requisitions ordered by Napoleon, but thankfully it was later returned and placed in the counter-façade of the very same church of San Francesco al Prato. The size of the Altarpiece had undergone various changes due to all these displacements: the width of the framework was visibly restricted, with the consequent cutting of the two Franciscan saints standing on both sides.
The fact that the Baptist, placed in the foreground and in a prominent position, on a boulder, is the protagonist of the scene, suggests that this artwork was destined for a chapel dedicated to this important figure. On the sides of St. John we find Saint Jerome, absorbed in the act of reading, Saint Sebastian holding an arrow, instrument of his martyrdom, Saint Francis, who holds the crucifix and has the stigmata on his hands, and Saint Anthony of Padua, carrying the flame of fire.
The date of realization of the painting is not certain but considering the general layout and the attitudes of the characters it is possible that Perugino executed it after 1512, when he starts to prefer commissions where he could replicate, without much effort of inventiveness, the models already used for other past succesfull artworks: clear tribute to one of the most important work of the painter in Umbria is the figure of Saint Sebastiano, whose antique clothing recalls those of the protagonists of the decoration of the Nobile Collegio del Cambio.
The work is preserved at the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria.
