St. John the Evangelist on Patmos / Joos van Cleve
About this Item
Record Details
- Accession Number
- 1958/2.77
- Title
- St. John the Evangelist on Patmos
- Artist
- Joos van Cleve
- Artist Nationality
- Flemish
- Artist Life Dates
- active 1511 - 1540/1541
- Medium and Support
- oil on panel, mounted on panel
- Object Creation Date
- circa 1525
- Object Creation Place
- Europe (continent)
- Belgium (nation)
- Flanders (region)
- Antwerpen (province)
- Antwerp (inhabited place)
- Creation Place 1
- Europe (continent)
- Creation Place 2
- Belgium (nation)
- Creation Place 3
- Flanders (region)
- Creation Place 4
- Antwerpen (province)
- Creation Place 5
- Antwerp (inhabited place)
- Credit Line
- Museum Purchase
- Style/Group/Movement
- Northern Renaissance
- Dimensions
- 71.8 cm x 74 cm (28 1/4 in. x 29 1/8 in.)
- Century
- 16th century
- Primary Object Classification
- Painting
- Primary Object Type
- Bibilcal
- Secondary Object Classification
- Ritual Objects
- Secondary Object Type
- altarpiece
- Physical Description
- St. John the Evangelist sits in the foreground with a book open on his knee and quill pen poised over its pages. Two books rest next to him and an eagle has alighted on an adjacent rock. St. John looks up and to his right to see a standing figure of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Christ, who appear in a glowing mandorla hovering in the sky. A vast panoramic view of a bustling harbor and formidable mountains unfolds behind St. John and extends into the distance.
- Subject Matter
- This painting depicts St. John the Evangelist writing the book of Revelation during his exile on the Greek island of Patmos. A pair of books, signifying the foundations of John's prophecy in the Old Testament, lie at his side, and an eagle, the symbol associated with John, has landed next to him. The saint fixes his attention upon the Virgin Mary who holds the infant Christ and hovers in the sky in a glowing mandorla as the "woman clothed with the sun" described in Revelation (12:1-6). The land falls away precipitously behind St. John and opens into a dramatic panorama of a bustling port and craggy mountains. Despite the great distance of the landscape we can discern, as if with telescopic eyes, myriad details that make the setting resemble sixteenth-century Flanders rather than a remote Mediterranean island.
- Primary Keywords
- antwerp (inhabited place)
- books
- christianity
- eagles
- harbors
- landscapes (representations)
- Secondary Keywords
- animals and creatures
- associated concepts
- birds
- bodies of water
- bodies of water and components of bodies of water
- bodies of water by location
- buildings and the land
- coastline bodies of water
- europe (continent)
- flanders (former nation/state/empire)
- geographic and political locations
- information artifacts
- information artifacts by physical form
- information forms
- landscapes (environments)
- natural landscapes
- objects we use
- people and culture
- religions
- religions and religious concepts
- settlements and landscapes
- visual works
- visual works by subject type
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Image Size
- 2368 x 2389
- File Size
- 755 KB
- Record
- 1958/2.77
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1958-sl-2.77/1958_2_77a.jpg
Rights and Permissions
Related Links
IIIF
- Manifest
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/api/manifest/musart:1958-SL-2.77
Cite this Item
View the Help Guide for more information.
- Full citation
-
"St. John the Evangelist on Patmos; Joos van Cleve." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1958-sl-2.77/1958_2_77a.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 27, 2025.
