TWENTY SAINTS IN TWENTY DAYS: PART 7 – ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST

Title: St John the Evangelist
Artist: El Greco
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 90 x 77 cm
Date: 1595-1604
Location: Museo del Prado, Madrid.

TWENTY SAINTS IN TWENTY DAYS: PART 7 – ST JOHN THE EVANGELIST

The Apostle St John the Evangelist was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and the brother of James the Greater. Originally they were fishermen, and fished with their father in the Lake of Genesareth. In the Gospels the two brothers are often called after their father "the sons of Zebedee", and received from Christ the honorable title of Boanerges, "sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17). John is the presumed author of the fourth gospel and, by tradition, the Beloved Disciple of that book, as well as the author of the Apocalypse, although scholarship does question at least some of these connections. One of the first to be called to follow Christ, he also witnesses with Peter and James the raising of Jairus's daughter (Mark 5:37), the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1), and the Agony in Gethsemane (Matthew 26:37). Only he and Peter were sent into the city to make the preparation for the Last Supper (Luke 22:8).

There is an analogous version of this painting in the Cathedral of Toledo, which is part of a series of the twelve Apostles called Apostolados. It is assumed by some scholars that this painting also belonged to a similar series. The saint’s attributes are a book or scroll, in allusion to his writings, an eagle which may hold a pen or inkhorn in its beak, or, as in this example, a chalice from which a snake emerges. This imagery commemorates the testimony that once, while at Ephesus, John was given a cup of poisoned wine to drink. Before drinking, he blessed the cup and the poison departed the cup in the form of a serpent.

Domenikos Theotokopoulos, known as El Greco (1541 – April 1614) was a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. Today considered one of the greatest artists of the Spanish school, El Greco was born in Crete, a Greek island then under Venetian control. Little is known of his youth, though El Greco's early works demonstrate that he worked within the conservative tradition of Byzantine icon painting before exposure to Venetian High Renaissance art broadened his stylistic approach. His workshop turned out a great many replicas of his paintings, but his work was so personal that his influence was slight, his only followers of note being his son Jorge Manuel Theotokopoulos and Luis Tristan. The strangeness of his art has inspired various theories, for example that he was mad or suffered from astigmatism, but his rapturous paintings make complete sense as an expression of the religious fervor of his adopted country. Interest in his art revived at the end of the 19th century and with the development of Expressionism in the 20th century he came into his own.

The Transfiguration

Title: The Transfiguration

Artist: Cornelis Monsma

Medium: Oil on canvas panel

Size: 76 x 96 cm

Date: 2006

Location: Private collection

The seventh miracle account that displays Jesus' power over nature is recorded in Luke 9:28-36. This miracle is known as the Transfiguration.

About eight days later Jesus took Peter, John, and James up on a mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was transformed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly, two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared and began talking with Jesus. They were glorious to see. And they were speaking about his exodus from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem. Peter and the others had fallen asleep. When they woke up, they saw Jesus’ glory and the two men standing with him. As Moses and Elijah were starting to leave, Peter, not even knowing what he was saying, blurted out, “Master, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three tabernacles — one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But even as he was saying this, a cloud overshadowed them, and terror gripped them as the cloud covered them. Then a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him.” When the voice finished, Jesus was there alone. They didn’t tell anyone at that time what they had seen.

Cornelis Monsma, a modern day, self-professed expressionist visual artist, seeks to create modern Christian art work that “aims to visualize the deeper truth of Christianity.” Biblical inspiration has produced colorful contemporary artwork, with an expressionist, abstract flavor. Monsma, Friesian-Dutch born, resides in New Zealand and is inspired by the paintings and colors of Marc Chagall. More artwork can be viewed on the website http://www.monsmart.com/

Title: Transfiguration

Artist: Girolamo Savoldo

Medium: Oil on Wood

Size: 139 x 126 cm

Date: c. 1520

Location: Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

The disciples are trying to come to grips with what is happening. In their view Jesus is another great figure, like Moses and Elijah. He will found a people like Moses and sustain them through hope like Elijah. So Peter suggests they together celebrate Tabernacles, a feast that looked forward to the eschaton. Peter wants to enjoy the moment and prolong it in celebration. He wants to stay on the mountaintop for as long as possible. But Luke makes it clear that Peter has spoken because he did not know what he was saying. The voice from heaven explains: they need to listen to Jesus so they will understand his uniqueness, call and destiny to suffer. Also, as their role is not merely to contemplate Jesus but to serve him. Celebration awaits in the future, but now is a time for instruction, response and action. There is the divine voice, which stops all discussion between the disciples and Jesus, and there is the central instruction to listen to Jesus. The point in both cases is that instruction is needed, because the path Jesus walks is unexpected.

Girolamo Savoldo, also called Girolamo da Brescia (c. 1480 – after 1548) was an Italian High Renaissance painter. Active mainly in Venice, his output was small and his career is said to have been unsuccessful, but he is now remembered as a highly attractive minor master whose work stands somewhat apart from the main Venetian tradition. He carefully studied the effects of light and reflections in a way that was most unusual for the time, and had links to the current of realism and acute psychological portrayal.

St John in the Wilderness

Title: St John in the Wilderness

Artist: Domenico Veneziano

Medium: Tempera on wood

Size: 28.5 x 32.5 cm

Date: c. 1447

Location: National Gallery of Art, Washington.

This painting is one of the five predella panels from the St. Lucy Altarpiece, which have now been separated from the altarpiece itself, and are in the museums of Washington, Cambridge and Berlin. Originally, the predella had probably been arranged in the same order as the saints appear in the main panel, that is: The Stigmatization of St Francis, St John in the Wilderness (National Gallery, Washington), Annunciation, St Zenobius Performs a Miracle (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) and the Martyrdom of St Lucy (Staatliche Museen, Berlin).

In the predella we find the same pale and delicate colors as in the main panel, but handled with even greater freedom and more loosely blended together. In scenes like the ‘St John in the Wilderness’, the colors and the light are true protagonists. This particular scene is also interesting from an iconographical point of view, for it is the only known depiction of St John in the wilderness at the moment when he is removing his worldly clothes to don the camel skin, the symbol of his vocation. The artistic inspiration comes from the Gospel of Luke 3:2 where it simply notes “[during the time of] the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came upon John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.”

Domenico Veneziano (c. 1410 – May 15, 1461) was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance, active mostly in Perugia and Tuscany. Little is known of his birth, though he is thought to have been born in Venice, hence his last name. Between 1445 and 1447 Domenico painted one of his two surviving signed works: an altarpiece for the Church of Santa Lucia dei Magnoli, usually called the Magnoli, or St Lucy, altarpiece. This altarpiece is one of the outstanding paintings produced in Florence in the middle of the 15th century.

Saint John the Evangelist's Vision of Jerusalem

Title: Saint John the Evangelist's Vision of Jerusalem
Artist: Alonso Cano
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1636-37
Size: 83 x 44 cm
Location: Wallace Collection, London.

This painting, contracted on 23 November 1635, was executed for the convent church of Santa Paula in Seville. It is evident that the artist had mastered an Italianate manner of painting. The partly clad figure of the angel, the complicated, foreshortened pose, and the mastery of anatomical drawing are unique elements in Sevillian painting of the time, as are the deep perspective of the landscape and the delicate, translucent colors.

Depicted are events from The Revelation of St. John 21:2, where St. John is shown the holy city, new Jerusalem, "coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

Alonso Cano or Alonzo Cano (19 March 1601 – 3 September 1667) was a Spanish painter, architect and sculptor born in Granada. While living in Madrid he was suspected of having murdered his wife, was unjustly condemned, and ordered to leave the city. He took refuge in Valencia, and entered the Carthusian convent so as to be able to devote himself wholly to painting, which henceforth occupied him to the exclusion of sculpture.