Leonardo da Vinci's St. John the Baptist heads to Rome after being shown in Milan

Leonardo da Vinci's St. John the Baptist stops in Rome. The show, sponsored by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and promoted by the Ministry of Culture and by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, falls under a partnership agreement between Eni and the Louvre, which has already allowed the work to be exhibited free of charge in Milan in the Alessi Room at Palazzo Marino, where it was greeted by public and critical acclaim with over 180,000 visitors in one month.

The painting will be part of the exhibition "Power and Grace – The Patron Saints of Europe" held in Palazzo Venezia from January 1 to 31, 2010, proposed by Comitato di San Floriano in conjunction with the Italian Embassy at the Holy See and with the Rome Museums. Due to this exceptional event, admission to the exhibition will be free of charge for the whole month of January.

Leonardo's St. John the Baptist will be exhibited in a special showcase and compared with the masterpieces by Andrea del Sarto, Titian, and Caravaggio, in order to give maximum visibility to such an extraordinary and enthralling work and to capture Leonardo's original genius and his faithful rendition of a shared symbolism.

The exhibition of the da Vinci masterpiece will be accompanied by a video with scientific images of the work, while a full description will be included in the audio guides for the event, to enable the visitors' involvement in an amazing educational and scientific journey.  Within the EniScuola project, Eni will also provide the schools of Rome, as those in Milan, to visit the exhibition with special educational and artistic supplements.

INTRODUCTION BY DON ALESSIO GERETTI, CURATOR OF THE EXHIBITION

 
"I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John" (Luke 7,28).
This is how Christ himself spoke of John the Baptist, the man who, fulfilling the prophesy of the Scriptures, prepared the way for him, preaching conversion and announcing the coming of the Messiah, the Lamb of God who would take away the sins and miseries of the world. 
John the Baptist, in an exhibition like "Power and Grace. The Patron Saints of Europe," dedicated to the history of saints, can be seen as emblematic of the most venerated patron saints in Western Christianity. A universal patron saint, John the Baptist always appears on the left of Christ in depictions of the Last Judgment, interceding on behalf of humanity, particularly those who died before the coming of Christ. His evangelism and martyrdom is a testament to his faith in the Lord. He is the ascetic who looks for spiritual perfection and heroism through fasting and poverty. He is the model for every monk and hermit, having wandered in the desert to immerse himself in God's love.
The Precursor embodies the main saints, which the exhibition tells the story of and from which various European nations have selected their patron saints. He will seem much more eloquent in this forum thanks to a historic opportunity: one where, from January 1, 2010, you can admire one of the most famous paintings dedicated to the saint, John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci, from the Louvre's collection in Paris. This tableau, exhibited since 1801, has only left the museum on two occasions: in 1939, for the "Leonardo da Vinci Exhibition" at the Milan Triennial, and in 1949, for the "Oeuvres d'art et méthodes scientifiques" Exhibition at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris.
History has earmarked this St. John – which is exhibited alongside similar works painted by Andrea Del Sarto, Titian and Caravaggio – for an international destiny. Leonardo carried it with him in 1516 in France, in Cloux, where he spent the last period of his life, keeping it along with the Mona Lisa, the Madonna with Child and St. Anne: the three paintings that the artist couldn't bear to part with and kept with him until his death.
The St. John powerfully but yet delicately expresses the mysticism and mystery of Leonardo's spiritual tension, his unending search for the meaning of things, nature, and the cosmos. The gaze of the young John the Baptist mesmerizes us and draws us in, focusing our attention on his inner self, with his left hand pointing to his heart, and on the sky, with a finger of his right hand pointing upwards, which is reminiscent of the relic of the finger of St. John kept in the city protected by the saint, Florence.
The St. John of Leonardo seems to use images and apparitions, among the shadows of the this earthly life, to transmit the theological and mystical messages of that itinerarium mentis in Deum wonderfully described by St. Bonaventura da Bagnoreggio: from the senses, found in the saint's gaze, to the heart, the core of the inner being, and to the sky, in the quest to unite the soul with the Lord.
As the curator of the exhibition, "Power and Grace. The Patron Saints of Europe"  and of this exceptional exhibition of John the Baptist by Leonardo, on behalf of our sponsors, the Italian Embassy at the Holy See, the Special Superintendent for the Historic, Artistic, and Ethnoanthropological Heritage, and the Association of Museums for the City of Rome, the San Floriano Committee, the promoting offices, especially Ministry of Heritage and Culture and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. I must thank the Louvre Museum, which has honored us with its trust, and Eni, which has supported and organized this extraordinary exhibition of the St. John Baptist at Palazzo Venezia, after having successfully exhibited it at Palazzo Marino in Milan. For more than fifty years, Eni, a company leader in the world of energy, has been a key player in providing cultural experiences both in Italy and abroad. Culture is a special form of energy for Eni, which can enrich human competencies, relations and value: the enzymes that accelerate the processes of trust and interdependence, which are necessary for vitality, and not just the economic vitality, of a society.
The alliance between Eni and the Louvre has brought Leonardo's St. John to Rome, reinforcing the close bonds that connect this museum and Italy, a neighboring country and friend that has a special place in the history of France and its art collections.
To confirm the exceptional nature of this event, something which makes it even more splendid, is that in its last month, the show, "Power and Grace," has received the sponsorship of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, which has encouraged our work and the availability of the Department for Information and Publishing of the Presidency itself.
Finally, it is with pleasure, given the exceptional nature of the exhibition of Leonardo's St. John the Baptist in Rome as part of "Power and Grace. The Patron Saints of Europe", that we are offering free entry to all visitors from January 1-31, 2010. At a time when the economic recession
threatens the cultural consumption and investment by many, we thought it was important to help those who want to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity as much as possible as well as to invite others who have already admired the other works in the show to go to it again, enjoying Leonardo's masterpiece without any worries.
John the Baptist's index finger, pointed at the sky, is something everyone remembers, a final message that the people and nations' patron saints continue to share in Europe as we enter the third millennium of Christianity.

During the Study Days on Leonardo da Vinci, organized by the Louvre Museum last June, the painting St John the Baptist was examined by the laboratory of the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France, by using non-invasive techniques only.

Other than a complete photographic dossier including direct and grazing light pictures of the recto and  verso, a 900 nm infrared image and a UV fluorescence image, the following were performed: an infrared2 reflectography (900-1700 nm), a radiography and an autoradiography, a study on X-ray fluorescence, a stereoscopic5 microscope examination and the measurement of paint thickness.

Discover the main stages  of the works on the painting to learn more about Leonardo da Vinci's painting technique.

In Rome since October 2009, an amazing exhibition will tell the story of Western Christianity for the first time through the stories of its protagonists.
The first show dedicated to the encounter and confrontation between power and religion, the state and the church, and the crown and the halo. From October 8 to January 31, 2010, the story of the fascinating and complex ties between the history of Europe and its people and the Christian events in Western civilization is narrated by "Power and Grace. The Patron Saints of Europe."

Louvre Museum
http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home.jsp?bmLocale=en

Leonardo da Vinci on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci