Art is the Solution

Saint John the Baptist as a Boy Source: Wikimedia Commons The Baroque period is probably one of my favorite eras of art history. The Baroque is characterized by experimentation with light and shadow, exaggerated motion, and, in general, extreme visual drama (and, anyone who knows me knows that I like drama in art). At its core, Baroque art attempts to access some sort of psychological reality, and the painting I’m going to talk about today is no different. Saint John the Baptist as a Boy was created by the Baroque painter Michaelina Wautier, one of the great Dutch painters of the seventeenth century. As the title suggests, it depicts Saint John the Baptist—one of the most popular subjects for Christian art throughout Western history—as a young boy. Wautier was a master of portraiture and particularly excelled in capturing the faces of children, which she executed with incredible sensitivity. Her image of Saint John captures the young boy at a particularly poignant moment. Here, t...