In this theatrical scene, Saint John the Baptist tells of Christ’s coming, perhaps poised to utter the words transcribed on his banner: “Behold the Lamb of God.” Despite the rapt crowd gathered at his feet, the saint looks beyond the frame as if to make a direct and impassioned call to the painting’s beholder. Preti painted this picture on the island of Malta, where he had settled in 1661. John the Baptist was the patron saint of the Knights of Malta, a lay religious order to which the artist himself belonged.