Saint John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci has made itself at home in its temporary new location at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, where it will remain on view for the ensuing two years.
The work of art was taken last month off loan from the renowned French institution and placed at the Musee de Louvre in Paris. Workers hoisted Saint John the Baptist at the Louvre Abu Dhabi on Monday after conducting careful measurements to guarantee its level presentation. The artwork, which honors the tremendous global cultural interchange that occurred between the 1500s and 1700s, is on exhibit in Gallery 7 of the First Globalization Museum.
The painting is a fitting addition to the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s ‘universal museum’ model and its director, Manuel Rabate, says it is a “vibrant manifestation” of the connection between the two Louvres. It is displayed alongside other pieces from the era that have been sourced from all over the world.
He says, “The picture is one of the crown jewels of the Louvre in Paris.” It is currently in Abu Dhabi. Da Vinci is a polymath, a polyglot, and a paragon of artistic ability.
The painting arrived at the Louvre Abu Dhabi at the most suitable time since the Louvre Abu Dhabi is celebrating its fifth anniversary. Saint John the Baptist represents a new chapter in the museum’s mission, according to Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism—Abu Dhabi, in contrast to Portrait of an Unknown Woman, also known as La Belle Ferronniere, which was loaned by the Louvre to its Abu Dhabi sibling to commemorate its opening in 2017.
Visitors from home and abroad now have yet another reason to visit the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which has developed over the past five years into a flagship museum in the Arab world, and engage with a beautiful work of art that captures an exceptional time in history.
In agreement, Rabate declares: “In the last five years, we opened and welcomed more than three million guests. This also includes the prolonged travel ban brought on by the Covid-19 outbreak. In the Arab world, we built the first worldwide museum. It is a model that has deep roots in Abu Dhabi, the UAE, and the Arab region.