Yann ar Badezour, Toledo, Spagn : diforc'h etre ar stummoù

John is shown against a background of green grape vines and thorny vine stems, seated on a red cloak, holding... a thin reed cross and looking down at a sheep lying at his feet. The red cloak would become a staple of Caravaggio's works, one with many precedents in previous art<ref>Robb, ''M''.</ref>.

[[Leonardo]] had painted a youthful and enigmatically smiling Baptist with one finger pointing upwards (to Heaven?) and the other hand seeming to indicate his own breast, while [[Andrea del Sarto]] left a Baptist which almost totally prefigures Caravaggio. Both Leonardo and del Sarto had created from the figure of John something which seems to hint at an entirely personal meaning, one not accessible to the viewer, and Caravaggio was to turn this into something like a personal icon in the course of his many variations on the theme.