El Greco painted this work for the convent of the Discalced (barefoot) Carmelite nuns in Malagón, Spain, where it remained until 1929. Of the various canvases by El Greco in which the figure of Saint John the Baptist appears, this may be the finest. Its composition is distinguished from related versions by the placement of a lamb on the rock: a reference to Christ’s sacrifice. The building pictured in the landscape has been identified as the Escorial, a monasterial palace northwest of Madrid that was completed in 1584.