Full title | Saint John the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos |
---|---|
Artist | Diego Velázquez |
Artist dates | 1599 - 1660 |
Series | Two Paintings for the Shod Carmelites, Seville |
Date made | 1618-19 |
Medium and support | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 135.5 x 102.2 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought with a special grant and contributions from The Pilgrim Trust and the Art Fund, 1956 |
Inventory number | NG6264 |
Location | Room 30 |
Art route(s) | B |
Collection | Main Collection |
On the Greek island of Patmos, Saint John the Evangelist had a vision of the Woman of the Apocalypse, which he recorded in the New Testament Book of Revelation. Here he sits with an oversized book in his lap, his quill pen poised, and looks towards the tiny illuminated female figure hovering in the clouds above him.
She is accompanied by a dragon – the devil – ready, according to Saint John, to devour her baby as soon as it is born. She is given wings, faintly visible behind her, to escape.
This woman is often understood to be the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ. The vision is associated with the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, the belief that Mary was herself conceived without sin. This painting is paired with The Immaculate Conception, which shows the Virgin standing on a moon and surrounded by stars, like in the vision we see here. Both are among Velázquez’s earliest known works.
On the Greek island of Patmos Saint John the Evangelist is having a vision, which he records in writing: he sees the Woman of the Apocalypse (Revelation 12: 1–4 and 14). He sits with an oversized book in his lap, his quill pen poised, and looks towards the tiny illuminated female figure hovering in the clouds above him.
Alongside her we can see a dragon – the devil – ready, as Saint John writes, ‘to devour her child’ as soon as it is born. She is given ‘two wings of a great eagle’, faintly visible behind her, to help her escape. The eagle is one of Saint John’s attributes and one sits beside him.
This woman is often understood to be the Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ. The Virgin as Woman of the Apocalypse is linked to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, the belief that Mary was herself conceived without sin. This painting is paired with The Immaculate Conception, which shows the Virgin standing on a moon and surrounded by stars, like in the vision we see here.
As in all of Velázquez’s early works, the figures he paints in his religious scenes appear to be based on real people. Saint John’s angular face is unusually youthful – he is traditionally depicted in paintings as a grey-bearded old man. The background is dark but you can just make out a sea and mountains in the distance.
There are haphazard brushstrokes in the sky, on the upper right: Velázquez had a habit of wiping excess paint from his brush in the background. They are now visible because the paint used to cover them up has become more transparent over time. The pinkish tone of John’s mantle would originally have been a more intense red colour.
There are several paintings in the National Gallery that depict this subject. Saint John on Patmos by a Netherlandish artist, for example, shows the saint seated in similar surroundings having the same vision.
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Saint John the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos
Two Paintings for the Shod Carmelites, Seville
Velázquez painted these two works as companion pieces during his early career in Seville, in around 1618. They were perhaps intended to promote the recent celebrations in the city of a papal decree defending the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, the belief that the Virgin Mary was conceived without sin.
We don't know who commissioned The Immaculate Conception and Saint John the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos, but they are first recorded in 1800 in the chapter house of the Convent of the Shod Carmelite Order in Seville.
Saint John and the Virgin both appear in the foreground, surrounded by objects identifying who they are, strongly illuminated from the top left. The colours of the Virgin’s clothes are echoed in reverse in Saint John’s, and both paintings demonstrate Velázquez’s skill in conveying a strong contrast between light and shade.
Velázquez painted these two works as companion pieces during his early career in Seville, in around 1618. They were perhaps intended to promote the recent celebrations in the city of a papal decree defending the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, the belief that the Virgin Mary was conceived without sin. This teaching was popular in seventeenth-century Spain, and particularly in Seville, where artists such as Velázquez and his teacher Francisco Pacheco played an important role in promoting the idea visually to the city’s churchgoers.
We don‘t know who commissioned The Immaculate Conception and Saint John the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos, in which John has a vision of the Woman of the Apocalypse (the source of much of the imagery associated with the Immaculate Conception). They are first recorded in 1800 in the chapter house of the Convent of the Shod Carmelite Order in Seville. The Carmelites were particularly devoted to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. These works were certainly commissioned and conceived together, but may have originally formed part of a larger complex, perhaps incorporating polychromed (’many coloured‘) sculpture.
The paintings are not only linked by theme, but by composition and colour. Saint John and the Virgin both appear in the foreground, surrounded by objects identifying who they are, strongly illuminated from the top left. The colours of the Virgin’s clothes are echoed in reverse in Saint John’s, and both paintings demonstrate Velázquez’s skill in conveying a strong contrast between light and shade.
Both figures look like they’re based on real models; one interpretation of these pictures is that Velázquez painted himself as Saint John and Juana Pacheco, whom he married in 1618, as the Virgin. Saint John’s angular face is in contrast to the Virgin’s more delicate features.
He gazes upwards towards heaven and his vision, while the Virgin casts her eyes downwards. She is the most important figure in both paintings, as she links the heavenly and earthly realms.


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