Like other ambitious painters of his day, Jacques Blanchard began his career with years of travel and study in Italy before establishing himself in Paris. Blanchard's itinerary took him to Rome, Venice, and Turin, before his return to Paris via Lyon. This tender painting of the Christ Child approached by his cousin, Saint John the Baptist, probably belongs to these years of travel. Blanchard drew on works by Titian and Veronese that he had seen in Venice for the dynamic poses and warm light, but he evidently still felt some uncertainty in the placement of the figures in space.