Saint John the Baptist

First half of 12th century
Mosaic
St. Mark's Basilica, Venice

The artist provides an especially wild version of the saint's hair and camel-hair tunic. I am not sure of the significance of the brown garment in his right hand.

The scroll is another of John's attributes. In the west it usually quotes John 1:29, ecce agnus dei ("behold the lamb of God"), of which the Greek is ιδε ο αμνος του θεου. But the present inscription seems to answer to neither the Greek nor the Latin.

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Photographed at the basilica by Claire Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.