German, South, 'Saint John on Patmos', about 1460-70

Saint John the Evangelist is shown on the island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea, where he was exiled under the rule of the Roman Emperor Domitian. According to tradition, it was there that he wrote the biblical Book of Revelation, a description of the events leading up to the apocalypse (the end of the world). Christians believe that at this moment Christ will come again to judge all the souls that have ever lived.

The saint is seated on the ground among rocky crags, on a slip of land surrounded by the sea; the spray from the gentle rippling water is represented as semi-circles of white dots. His traditional symbol, the eagle, perches by his side on a red book (probably his Gospel). Acting as the medium of John’s divine inspiration, it raises its head to the heavens where its beady eyes seem transfixed.

In other versions of the scene, John himself is witnessing a divine vision of the words he writes (see, for example, a version by the Master of the Female Half-Lengths). Gripping his ink pot in one hand and quill in the other, he is deep in concentration – listening perhaps to the bird and writing on a scroll unfurled across his knees.

Many representations of Saint John on the island, both painted and sculpted, show him writing on his lap like this – though often in a book rather than on a scroll – enhancing the sense of the spontaneity of his divine inspiration as well as the rugged setting. In general the artist has composed the image to evoke a sense of calm and serenity: John is placed in the very centre, and the triangular shape of his crimson cloak with its wide base is almost symmetrical.

The bright crimson robes contrast with the muddy green landscape around the saint. The artist, who may have been from the region of the Upper Rhineland, has paid careful attention to the effects of light on the scenery: a gold light hovers above the horizon, suggesting it is dawn, and catches the foliage of the few trees on the slopes. The picture was painted when artists were developing an interest in depicting nature and this episode offered the opportunity to paint a varied landscape setting.