Italian school; second half of the 17th century. "The Baptism of Christ". Oil on canvas. Re-coloured. It presents repainting, frame of epoch and frame of beginning of the 20th century. Measurements: 68,5 x 108,5 cm; 88 x 127,5 cm (frame). The present work shows an idealised natural landscape in the background, with the figures in large size, located in the left area of the composition. Despite their location in the piece, the figures do not lose their prominence, due to their size in relation to the landscape and the tones used in their conception. Following the usual aesthetic after the provisions of the Council of Trent, which led to the change in Roman Catholicism during the Counter-Reformation. On the left, dressed in the typical unfinished leather, with his characteristic red cloak, is Saint John the Baptist, pouring water over Christ and with his crosier with phylactery held in his left hand. Christ is dressed only in a cloth of purity and adopts a gesture of humility as he bows his head while holding his two hands clasped on his chest. Iconographically, the theme of the Baptism of Christ is one of the oldest in Christian art because of its theological importance and the Sacrament that derives from it (which is why it has undergone variations that can sometimes be related to liturgical variations in the Sacrament of Baptism). As is logical, it has varied according to the time, style and school to which each work belongs. Spanish Baroque painting is one of the most authentic and personal examples of art, because its conception and form of expression arose from the people and their deepest feelings. With the economy of the state in ruins, the nobility in decline and the high clergy burdened with heavy taxes, it was the monasteries, parishes and confraternities of clerics and laymen who were responsible for its development. lsed its development, and the works were sometimes financed by popular subscription. Sculpture was thus obliged to express the prevailing ideals in these environments, which were none other than religious ones, at a time when Counter-Reformation doctrine demanded a realistic language from art so that the faithful would understand and identify with what was represented, and an expression endowed with an intense emotional content in order to increase the fervour and devotion of the people. Religious themes were therefore the main subject matter of Spanish painting of this period, which in the early decades of the century focused on capturing the natural world and gradually intensified throughout the century on expressive values, which it achieved through movement and a variety of gestures, the use of light and the depiction of moods and feelings.