The Saint John the Baptist is an ancient copy of the painting executed by Caravaggio around 1604-1605 on commission from the Ligurian banker Ottavio Costa, now kept in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. The work is almost identical to the American canvas, even in size. The painting was purchased as Bartolomeo Manfredi, but in 1803 the painter Tommaso Conca valued it as an original by Caravaggio. The quality of the painting and the pictorial technique have recently led to reconsider the attribution to Manfredi.