17th Century, Saint John The Evangelist With The Eagle

17th century

Saint John the Evangelist with the eagle

Oil on canvas, cm 38 x 33

With frame, cm 48 x 42

Among the apostles, Saint John is certainly the most represented: his relationship of particular closeness to the figure of Christ means that the evangelist is present in most of the depictions of the most important episodes of the life and passion of Jesus: he is the only one among his disciples to be present also at the foot of the Cross; We find it depicted in the Transfiguration and in the icons that report the Acts of the Apostles such as the Ascension or Pentecost.

Two iconographic versions are the most common in the representation of the apostle John: he is usually depicted as the student and "the disciple whom Jesus loved", or as "the Theologian". In the depiction of the young apostle John as a favorite disciple of Christ, this is usually presented with the head reclining on Jesus' chest during the Last Supper; John "the Theologian" instead is commonly painted in a kind of "portrait", rather than as part of a real biblical scene: he is represented, while writing some passages of his gospel, with the book open, to reveal some verses from the sacred scriptures. It can also be represented with the eagle, which is its symbol.

It is to this latter iconography that our painting refers: the saint, clothed in red, is presented during the writing phase of his gospel. He looks upwards in search of divine inspiration. The saint is accompanied by his symbol of the tetramorph, the eagle, symbolic of his vision of the divine and theology.