Saint John the Baptist Preaching

Willem Reuter (active c. 1650-1670) was a Flemish painter known for his market and genre scenes in the Bamboccianti manner—the small-scale genre subjects of everyday Roman life that Northern painters working in Rome developed from Pieter van Laer's example. Saint John the Baptist Preaching from c. 1665 depicts the biblical subject in the market scene manner of the Bamboccianti, with the crowd of figures that allows Reuter to exercise his talent for depicting everyday Roman life within a religious narrative. The c. 1665 date places this in the period when the Bamboccianti manner was at its most popular in Rome.

Saint John the Baptist Preaching is important in the history of the Bamboccianti because it demonstrates the combination of religious narrative and genre subject that the Bamboccianti manner allowed. Reuter's treatment of the biblical subject as a market scene with a crowd of everyday figures shows the Bamboccianti manner applied to a religious narrative, creating a type of painting that is simultaneously biblical and genre—a combination that Northern painters working in Rome found particularly productive.

Saint John the Baptist Preaching is Reuter's Bamboccianti biblical genre: the biblical subject rendered as a market scene with everyday figures in the small-scale, everyday manner of the Northern painters working in Rome. The c. 1665 painting shows the Bamboccianti manner applied to a religious narrative with characteristic genre detail.