John the Baptist in the Wilderness

The image on the left is the original 15th century panel of John the Baptist in the wilderness, and the image on the right is my reconstruction.

The first panel is John the Baptist in the Wilderness. The term “wilderness” in the bible most likely refers to the desert region of Palestine[1]. This area has a lot of symbolic connection with God appearing to his followers, such as Moses[2], Elijah[3], and David[4]. The connection of the wilderness with religious devotion would have been clear to medieval Christians who would have been familiar with these Bible stories[5]. For my reconstruction, I wanted to focus on simplifying the image of John the Baptist. I worked to create a holy image, where John’s reverence to God was clear, along with the holy connotations of the wilderness. Unlike the 15^th century glass where nature is explicitly represented with trees and plants, a medieval stained-glass window would have used green to symbolize nature. The abstract trees and flowers in my piece also clue viewers into the location. The main message of this panel that I wanted to highlight was John’s preaching of the approach of the apocalypse[6]. This window would have served to remind medieval Christian of the stakes associated with not following Christ, as well as the importance of going to church before judgement.