Masolino da Panicale Frescos (Castiglione Olona Baptistery)

The fresco cycle narrates the life of John the Baptist, including his preaching, the baptism of Christ, his imprisonment, and his death. The scenes cover the walls of the baptistery at Castiglione Olona in Lombardy. Masolino painted the cycle around 1435, during the early Italian Renaissance.

The frescoes were commissioned in the context of Cardinal Branda Castiglioni's patronage of his hometown of Castiglione Olona. Cardinal Castiglioni was a significant church figure who sponsored multiple artistic projects to embellish the town. Masolino da Panicale worked on several commissions for the Cardinal in this location.

The baptistery is located in Castiglione Olona, a small town in the Lombardy region of northern Italy, in the province of Varese. The town is not far from Milan and Como. Masolino's fresco cycle makes the baptistery a notable site for early Renaissance art.

Masolino painted the fresco cycle around 1435, during a period when he was working for Cardinal Branda Castiglioni. This was relatively late in Masolino's career, after his earlier collaborations with Masaccio in Florence. The works at Castiglione Olona represent some of his most significant surviving fresco cycles.