Baptism of Christ

Some of Domenico Tiepolo’s drawings series dealt with specifically identifiable subjects, including the baptism of Jesus Christ. Though the story of John baptizing Jesus appears in three of the New Testament gospels, the details of the accounts are scant, leaving artists great latitude in depicting this event. Domenico responded by drawing many different versions, usually crowded with onlookers as here. There are so many such drawings that they do not seem to have been made in preparation for specific paintings; rather they were exercises for the artist.