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The painting would speak for itself without the presence of the tree just behind John the Baptist. Its three principal branches, a central and two lateral ones, reproduce, upside down, the trunk and the arms of the saint. Indeed, John the Baptist symbolizes the reversed tree where the true roots are in Heaven and the branches fall to Earth. These roots are represented by the aureole rays surrounding the head and evoking the sun. The beheading will liberate the celestial head tied to the terrestrial body and let it rise to Heaven, as the sun, to find its place again.
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