Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos

According to legend, John the Evangelist was exiled by the emperor Domitian to the Greek island of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. Titian shows the saint as if on the peak of a mountain, reacting in awe and astonishment to the voice of God (“I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet. . . . And I turned to see the voice that spake with me”; Revelation 1:10–12). He then saw a vision of God, who instructed him to record what was to be revealed to him.

In keeping with the painting’s original placement on a ceiling, the steeply foreshortened figure of the Evangelist is seen from a dramatically low viewpoint, approximately corresponding to that of a spectator entering the room where it was installed. Saint John is portrayed at an angle, as if seen from the bottom of a slope, in a way that remains consistent with the high location of the painting, while not impairing the legibility of the figure’s face and pose.

The picture originally formed a central element of the ceiling decoration of the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista in Venice. Founded in 1261, it was a confraternity (a voluntary organization of laypeople associated with the church), and one of four original _scuole grandi_, which played a central role in the religious, social, and cultural life of late medieval and Renaissance Venice. John the Evangelist, depicted here with his attributes of a gospel and an eagle, was the Scuola’s patron saint.