Jump to content

St. John the Evangelist on Patmos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by NicoScPo (talk | contribs) at 09:57, 2 March 2012. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

St. John on Patmos
ArtistHieronymus Bosch
Yearcirca 1500
TypeOil on oak panel
LocationStaatliche Museen

St. John on Patmos is a painting by Hieronymus Bosch. The painting is currently in the Gemäldegalerie, in Berlin, Germany. The reverse is also painted, the title of that picture is Scenes from the Passion of Christ and the Pelican with Her Young.

St. John the Evangelist on Patmos forms a pair with St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness, which is in Madrid. It was noted in the 1940s that the two paintings may have been designed as wings of an altarpiece. Such an origin would explain the grisaille painting on the reverse, as it is characteristic of polyptychs to have both sides of folding panels decorated. It has since been suggested that the altarpiece in question was an artwork which is known to have been made for St. John's Cathedral, 's-Hertogenbosch.

The painting is difficult to date. If the 's-Hertogenbosch hypothesis is correct, the date would be around 1489, although later dates have been proposed based on other criteria.

See also