Out of the Wilderness: A Fourteenth-Century English Drawing of John the Baptist

A previously unnoticed, exceptional fourteenth-century English drawing of St. John the Baptist, housed in London's British Library (MS Royal 10 B XIV), has been identified as a significant addition to early to mid-fourteenth-century English art. The drawing, dated circa 1335–40 and likely executed in southeast England or East Anglia, features rare iconographic motifs, including a figure of Salome beneath the saint's feet and a monumental Gothic arch composed of living oak trees framing the saint. This unique imagery suggests the drawing was created as a focus of devotion for John of Lingfield, an Oxford scholar-monk and first recorded owner of the manuscript. The study explores the physical nature, bibliographical context, and artistic associations of the drawing, highlighting its role in the acquisition of manuscript illumination at St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, during the early fourteenth century.

LUXFORD, J. M. (2010). Out of the Wilderness: A Fourteenth-Century English Drawing of John the Baptist. Gesta, 49(2), 137–150. https://doi.org/10.2307/41550543