Saint John the Evangelist Resurrects a Dead Man

The panel entitled Saint John the Evangelist resurrects a dead man was found in 1968.

It was hidden behind the railing of the altar of stained-glass window V07, where it had been substituted by a copy by Giovan Battista Bertini, and then acquired by the Duomo Museum in 1974.

The glass panes are nearly all original. In any case, the outlines are filled out with cold paints to rectify the extended decline of the old grisaille, the clarity of which has been greatly restored thanks to recent restoration work.

Although there is only a small amount of grisaille remaining, it is possible, on the basis of the facial characteristics and the architecture, to attribute the realization of the cartoon to Cristoforo de Mottis, dating it around 1475-1478.

In the architecture and in correlation with the halos and hair, it is clear that silver egg tempera has been used.

The panel depicts one of the passages of the episode about resurrection from death: while John is preaching to two young men, the funeral procession of a boy who had been married for just 30 days passes in front of him.

The holy man stops the procession and resurrects the dead man, making him sit up first of all (precisely the scene depicted in the painting) and asking him to relate otherworldly punishments and beatitudes.

The dead man stands up and convinces the young men to believe his story and continue following John.