Zechariah writes on a sheet of paper with a quill pen, an inkpot in his other hand.
Bible in art · Luke
The Birth and Naming of John the Baptist
Juan de Flandes, Netherlandish, c. 1460–1519 · 1496–99
The Cleveland Museum of Art (John L. Severance Fund, 1975.3)
Juan de Flandes, a Netherlandish painter at the court of Queen Isabella of Castile, painted this tall panel in oil around 1496–99. It belonged to an altarpiece the queen commissioned for a monastery near Burgos, in Spain.
The birth room is a comfortable Flemish home: a bed hung with green velvet where Elizabeth rests, a wall clock, a brazier of glowing coals. In front, Zechariah, still unable to speak, writes the boy’s name, while a young woman holds the newborn out to him.
From the text
- Elizabeth giving birth to a son (Luke 1:57)
- Zechariah unable to speak since the angel’s visit (Luke 1:20–22)
- Zechariah “asked for a tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John’” (Luke 1:63)
The artist’s own
- By tradition the young woman holding the baby is Mary; Luke says she went home after about three months (Luke 1:56)
- A sheet of paper and a quill pen instead of a writing tablet
- A Flemish house of the 1490s — canopy bed, clock with weights, tiled floor, brazier
- A maid bringing in a dish of food
Details
Writing the name
The newborn
The baby lies on a white cloth, held out towards his father.
Elizabeth
The mother rests in bed against large white pillows.
A maid
A maid in pink comes through the door with a dish.
The clock
A small wall clock with hanging weights.
Coals
A brazier of glowing coals warms the room.
Juan de Flandes, Netherlandish, c. 1460–1519. The Cleveland Museum of Art (John L. Severance Fund, 1975.3) · Oil on wood · Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access: Collection API record "share_license_status": "CC0" (Creative Commons Zero, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).