St John on Patmos
by BALDUNG GRIEN, Hans, Oil on spruce panel, 87 x 76 cm
This panel was identified as the right panel of a dismembered altarpiece. The centre panel depicting the Mass of St Gregory is now in the Museum of Art, Cleveland, while the left panel representing St Anne with the Christ Child, the Virgin, and St John the Baptist is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.
The Vision of the Apocalypse was a favourite subject of northern European painters (Memling, D�rer, Burgkmair), they painted many versions of it. The present painting shows the youthful St John the Evangelist wearing a bright red-orange robe and cloak as he writes the book of Revelation in the codex on his knees. The Virgin, in a vivid turquoise gown, surrounded by a mandorla of clouds, appears to him in a vision.