Depicted Age of St. John the Baptist

In the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, the writer narrates the story behind the miraculous conception and birth of St. John the Baptist. As revealed, St. John the Baptist was approximately six months older than Jesus Christ--a contemporary. One would expect, therefore, that when the two are depicted within a single picture frame, they would be expected to be of a similar or close in age. Numerous artist follow this model, this guide. Bonifazio Veronese (1523) and Jacopo Bassano (1570), like so many others, shows the baby Jesus as an infant, a babe in arms, while the infant St. John the Baptist has obviously begun to stand, if not walk. The two are shown as ideal, well fed, pudgy, almost ‘cute’ children that would illicit “Oooh’s” and “Ahhh’s,” and border on what one might view as a slightly kitschy representation of an infant (See illustrations below).