Caravaggio’s treatment of St. John the Baptist with Ram (1602) (See below)--the second or possibly the third painting of the saint alone and unaccompanied--is impudently audacious bordering on scandalous. But, no less impudent or audacious than Donatello’s ephebe David (c. 1440) (See below). Not only does Caravaggio paint St. John the Baptist as a youth, he paints him nude. The young saint either melts into the background or emerges from it in a tantalizing series of diagonals and counter diagonals of brilliantly lit flesh and murky shadows! Here, there is none of the well lit idealism of Del Sarto or Raphael. From behind the luxurious figure of St. John the Baptist looms the menacing head of a ram. Not a lamb but a ram! The ram which traditionally is more a symbol of sexual excess than the “Lamb of God.” The saint embraces the ram with his right arm, turns his head and looks at us, the viewers. This young figure is sensually predatory, demanding confidential eye contact which creates a tension, a destructive tension forcing the viewer to react in ways they might not be prepared to do. Have we come upon the young saint in a private moment? If so, his glance does not communicate either surprise or embarrassment, but a rather taunting look. In this work, Caravaggio’s approach is far from orthodox and closer to heterodox.