Christ’s Baptism
Everything mentioned in all four gospels about the Baptism of Christ and surrounding events is captured in this fresco from the Sistine chapel by Pietro Perugino (1446 – 1523): the dove descending on Jesus, the many people coming to be baptised by John, the strangely dressed and hesitating John the Baptist, even the voice of God is graphically depicted in a rare appearance of God himself in the cloud.
Everything is there, that is until you realise that all of it is set on the outskirts of Rome and the characters were Pietro’s friends from sixteenth century Italy. Can we find ourselves in the stories of the Bible?
Bernhard Schunemann
11 January 2026
