Category:John the Baptist--fiction (subject)

John the Baptist (fiction); see John the Baptist (home page)

• John the Baptist (fiction) -- John the Baptist (art) -- John the Baptist (literature) -- John the Baptist (music) -- John the Baptist (dance) -- John the Baptist (cinema)

• John the Baptist (research) -- John the Baptist (sources)

Page authored by Gabriele Boccaccini, University of Michigan, @2020.

Overview

In Christian tradition and iconography John the Baptist emerged from the Middle Ages as a full-fledged and complex character, with a detailed biography. Famous artists such as Giotto, Andrea Pisano, Filippo Lippi, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Andrea del Sarto, dedicated great cycles to the life of John the Baptist. These cycles came to include up to 20-25 episodes, covering all aspects of his life: his birth, his childhood, his mission, his relation with Jesus, and his death. No other New Testament character, besides Jesus and Mary of Nazareth, had received so much attention; see John the Baptist (art). John was honored as a saint, and many churches offered relicts of his for the veneration of the believers; see Relics of John the Baptist).

Given such glorious premises it should be expected that John the Baptist would flourish as one of main characters in modern biblical fiction, from the renaissance to the present. But it was not the case.

It was the bizzarre circumstances of his death rather than his many life accomplishments, that first and mostly attracted the interest of playwrights and novelists, who gave John a quite marginal role in a drama where the real protagonists were others: Herod Antipas, Herodias and Salome. Soon John's name disappeared even from the titles of plays and novels.

With the success of the oratorio San Giovanni Battista by Alessandro Stradella in 1675, John the Baptist seemed to have found at last his most fitting role as a "voice" singing the praises of God. But even in music John was soon overshadowed by a mightier character, Salome, who revealed much greater potential as a singer and a dancer. She (not he) was the protagonist of the famous operas by Jules Massenet (1891) and Richard Strauss (1905). In the Salomania that exploded in the early 20th century, John's role was limited to being the object and the victim of Salome's lustful desire.

Cinema has followed s similar pattrn

Once again John saw somebody else rise to fame while he had to decline. In the Salomania that exploded in the early 20th century, John's role was limited to being the object and the victim of Salome's lustful desire.

Unlike other biblical characters, John the Baptist does not emerge with distinctive features in literature. The interest of the readers focused on the bizzarre circumstances of his death rather than on his many life accomplishments, which gave him a quite marginal role in a drama where the real protagonists were others: Herod Antipas, Herodias and Salome. Soon his name disappeared even from the titles of plays and novels. Only in contemporary times have there been a few attempts to revisit his biography, the most ambitious of which is that of American novelist Brooks Hansen in 2009. Too little and too late to establish John the Baptist as a protagonist in biblical fiction.