"Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos"

In keeping with the painting’s original placement on a ceiling, the steeply foreshortened figure of the Evangelist is seen from a dramatically low viewpoint, approximately corresponding to that of a spectator entering the room where it was installed. Saint John is portrayed at an angle, as if seen from the bottom of a slope, in a way that remains consistent with the high location of the painting, while not impairing the legibility of the figure’s face and pose.

The picture originally formed a central element of the ceiling decoration of the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista in Venice. Founded in 1261, it was a confraternity (a voluntary organization of laypeople associated with the church), and one of four original scuole grandi, which played a central role in the religious, social, and cultural life of late medieval and Renaissance Venice. John the Evangelist, depicted here with his attributes of a gospel and an eagle, was the Scuola’s patron saint.

This painting is oil on canvas,  237.6 x 263 cm. and is housed in The National Gallery of Art, Washington,DC.