St John the Baptist

This statue was sculpted and signed c. 1660 for the altar of the Mora Chapel in the church of the Scalzi (church of Santa Maria di Nazareth). The St John manifests a Northern style true to the artist’s origins and artistic background. In an unusual compositional solution, the statue is in a niche that consists of a flat surface and a rocky background. The figure is rendered on an even footing with these landscape elements and the face and every detail is carved with a realistic meticulousness of Northern stamp and undoubted expressive effect, making it a landmark n Venetian sculpting of the time.