Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450-1519), St John the Evangelist on Patmos, 1504-05, oil on oak panel, 63 x 43 cm.
Evangelist Johannes auf der Insel Patmos
Johannes de Evangelist op Patmos
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

The youtful apostle is depicted on the island of Patmos, to which he had been banished by the Emperor Domitian and where he composed the Book of Revelation, here seen lying open on his lap. His mild gaze is lifted towards an apparition of the Virgin enthroned on a crescent moon. The saint’s attention has been directed to the vision by an angel whose slender figure and delicately plumed wings appear scarcely more substantial than the misty Dutch panorama behind. Bosch has restrainted his predilection for demonic exhibits to a little hooded, spectacled monster with a lizard-like tail, painted in the lower right corner and probably suggested by St John’s Apocalypse.