Stories of Saint John the Evangelist

Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist (10-98 CE) was the author of the fourth Gospel and the Book of Revelation. His compositions are a pinnacle of Christian theology.

According to the accounts of the canonical Gospels, he was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and brother of the Apostle James the Great. Before following Jesus, he was a disciple of John the Baptist.

John witnessed the key events in the life of Christ, and was the only apostle present at his death on the cross.

Tradition has it that he had a special role within the circle of the 12 apostles, together with Peter and James the Great, and was often known as the disciple whom Jesus loved.

According to ancient Christian tradition, following his exile to the Greek island of Patmos, one of the Dodecanese islands, he died of old age in Ephesus (now Efes), Turkey. He was the last survivor of the 12 apostles.

The episodes depicted are tales from the Saint's life narrated in the Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea) by Jacopo da Varagine, in versions by Vincenzo di Beauvais, Monbrizio, and Pietro de Natalibus.

The window was originally placed in the Duomo's southern transept. However, in the 19th century, it was dismantled and the panels were redistributed in various windows along the southern flank.

The rediscovery of a crucial document about the story of the window in 1891 made it possible to reconstruct the story of the artwork dedicated to Saint John.

The document confirmed that the illustrated panels were completed in the last few months of 1475, partly by Cristoforo de Mottis and partly by  Jesuit Masters.

The window was restored for the first time in 1650 by the master glassmaker Carlo Rivolta, employed in the Duomo at that time for maintenance of the windows.

During the 19th century, the window was divided between windows V06 and V07 in the southern nave and then restored by Pompeo Bertini in 1885.

Following the last restoration in 1968 by Eugenio Ganda, under the supervision of Ernesto Brivio, the panels was put back together in window V01 in the southern nave.

Some of the older and more fragile sections are however preserved in the Duomo Museum.

The work which is read from bottom to top, and from left to right, is an intense succession of episodes in which the Saint is grappling the many sides of humanity. Among the episodes, we can see: The conversion of the young man, Saint John in Patmos - a copy of the original section now housed in Duomo Museum - as well as Saint John resurrects the dead.

In the panels by De Mottis, clear references to Filarete can be identified, such as in the coffered ceiling, architectural modules which were sketched in the second half of the 15th century.

The style of De Mottis is inspired by the language of Amadeo and Mantegazza, while the panels attributed to the Jesuit Brothers are characterized by a more markedly Late Gothic style.

In the trilobes under the rose window, panels depicting the four Evangelists stand out, while just underneath episodes of the life of Saint John on his own are illustrated.

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