St. John the Evangelist in Art: A Look Back Through Time

Saint John the Evangelist is a figure who appears in the Bible and is venerated in Christianity. He is traditionally depicted as an apostle, and is often shown writing the Gospel of John or the Book of Revelation. There are numerous artworks depicting Saint John the Evangelist in The Metropolitan Museum, many of which date back to the medieval period. These artworks provide insight into how different cultures and religions have represented Saint John over time.

The Crucifixion with the Virgin and Saint John

    Painted roughly a century after the other works in this gallery, Ter Brugghen's scene of Christ's crucifixion draws on the dramatic, emotional appeal of earlier religious art to inspire the private prayers of a Catholic viewer.
    The Virgin Mary and John the Evangelist, who flank the cross, provide surrogates for the viewer's agonized beholding of the crucifixion.

The Lamentation

    Ludovico Carracci's painting of the Madonna and Child Jesus is a landmark of the Carracci reform of painting.
    The painting is characterized by a lack of idealization and a directness that sixteenth-century critics found shocking.
    The figures of the Virgin, the three Maries, and Saint John are strikingly stylized.

The Crucifixion

    In this poignant image, the Crucifixion is presented as an enactment of the written word due to the inclusion of Saint Jerome.
    The Church Father is shown as somewhat detached from the event at hand, apparently reading about it from his translation of the Bible.
    True to the account of the Gospels, David has provided an appropriate sense of time and space.

The Crucifixion

    This Crucifixion shares a trait with other works of the so-called courtly (or International) style that prevailed in Europe in the years around 1400.
    The artist was one of the foremost painters in northwest Germany.
    The main panel is still in the Neustädter Marienkirche in Bielefeld, Westphalia.

The Lamentation

    Luis de Morales was celebrated for his devotional images.
    Their exquisite facture and morbid sensibility made them perfect vehicles for meditation and earned him the epithet "El Divino."
    He was the favorite painter of the religious reformer and saint Juan de Ribera (1532 - 1611).
    As one prominent scholar has noted:"No Spanish painter was ever to surpass Morales in expressing the passionate, personal faith of the mystical writers."
    This extremely fine picture was owned by Pope Pius VII and passed to his family upon his death in 1823.

Descent from the Cross

    This painting is a depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
    The painting shows Jesus' body being lowered into the arms of Saint John the Evangelist under the anguished gaze of Mary Magdalen, who kneels at the foot of the cross.
    On the left, one of the other Maries supports the swooning Virgin.