The Baptism of Jesus. Gustave Doré, 19th century.
The Baptism is the moment the Gospels mark as a beginning — the heavens opened, the Spirit descending, a voice from above. Gustave Doré’s engraving gives the scene its vertical drama, while Amnon’s two-and-a-half-meter-high wood carving preserves that upward pull. The 24-karat gold and metallic gold leaf are applied selectively, so that the light descending in the text is echoed here in material as well.