The St. John the Baptist by the Florentine artist Donatello around 1455 in Florence and brought to Siena by the artist himself in 1457, is kept inside the chapel dedicated to the saint in the Duomo of Siena.
St. John the Baptist is depicted according to the classical iconography: he is standing, dressed in hairs with whom he lived in the desert, and he carries in his hand the processional cross and a parchment where the writing “Ecce Agnus Dei” is usually found.
The other hand, that of reintegration, is instead bent to blessing. The figure is thin, with a dug face, sunken eyes, a dry parchment skin that reveals the veins and tendons underneath. The open mouth and the astonished gaze testify to the profound suffering of the saint, caught in the moment of the wanderings and the fasts in the desert.
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