In the background, to the left of John the Baptist – a group of future disciples of Christ, the apostles. Right – one of the most important for the philosophical understanding of the picture group – a slave and a master.
The gentleman sits with his back to the audience and dresses after Baptism. Having accepted a new faith, the master, however, does not consider it necessary to convert a slave into it, because he thinks that it is only necessary for the freeborn people, and for the slave the faith that proclaimed. that all people are brothers – to nothing.
However, a slave with a rope around his neck, giving his master clothes, listens to the words of the sermon, and they penetrate into his heart, and a smile of hope illuminates his morbid, wrinkled face. The figure of a slave in the picture is a symbol of liberation through spiritual insight.