SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST ALTARPIECE

ICONOGRAPHY 

The main body of the altarpiece revolves around episodes from the life of St. John the Baptist distributed around a free-standing figure of the saint in the central niche. The figure of St. John is wearing his customary camel skin and pointing to the lamb he is carrying over his left shoulder.

The story begins with his Birth: Elisabeth is laying on a bed with several women looking after her while her husband Zachariah writes the name of the newly-born infant. This scenario is followed by the Preaching in which flocks of faithful followers listen to him preaching. The Baptism of Jesus, the most important scenario, is located in the altarpiece's frontispiece. There we can see St. John, the figure of an angel and God, the Father Almighty. The scenario of the Arrest of the Saint completes the left-hand side of the altarpiece and leads to the scene of his Martyrdom or Decapitation on the right. The following scenario is one in which Salomé bursts into Herod's banquet with the head of St. John the Baptist on a platter. The pictorial narration ends as Hernández Redondo suggests: with the exhumation of his body.

On the predella and in this order, are the scenes depicting the Washing of the Feet, the Lamentation Over the Body of Christ and the Last Supper alongside a young man.