The Birth and Naming of John the Baptist

About the Artwork

Typical of Flemish art of the period, this scene suggests a comfortable home of the late 1400s in the Netherlands to frame the story of a biblical birth. Elizabeth, mother of Saint John the Baptist, rests after her labor, while her cousin, the Virgin Mary, presents the newborn to his father, Zacharias. Having lost his ability to speak when he doubted an angel’s prophecy of the child’s birth, Zacharias writes down his son’s name. At this moment, his speech is restored. This painting was once part of an altarpiece commissioned by Queen Isabella I of Castile, known as the Catholic (1451–1504), for a monastery near Burgos.

Provenance

Monastery of Miraflores, Spain ?-1975: (Frederick Mont, New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 1975-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Exhibition history

Jan van Eyck, Early Netherlandish Painting and the South of Europe. Groeningemuseum, Stedelijke Musea, Brugge, Belgium (March 15-June 30, 2002). Juan de Flandes: The Miraflores Triptych. Museum Mayer Van den Bergh, Antwerp, Belgium (organizer) (September 11-November 7, 2010). Creation, Birth, and Rebirth. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 17, 2024-July 16, 2025).

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.

Quick Overview

Artist: Juan de Flandes (Netherlandish, c. 1460–1519)
Date: 1496–99
Medium: oil on wood
Dimensions: Framed: 99 x 60 x 7.5 cm (39 x 23 5/8 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 88.4 x 49.9 cm (34 13/16 x 19 5/8 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: Medieval Art
Credit line: John L. Severance Fund
Accession no.: 1975.3

Open-access museum record · AT-00009171