Landscape with Saint John on Patmos (1640): Artwork and History

Landscape with Saint John on Patmos (1640) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594–1665).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

In Christian tradition, Saint John the Evangelist is thought to be the youngest of Christ’s twelve disciples—but Nicolas Poussin depicted him here as an elderly man. The disciple has retired to the Greek island of Patmos to write the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation; he is shown at work with his attribute, an eagle, just behind him. Poussin constructed an idealized landscape, shaping natural forms according to geometric principles and reinforcing the measured order of the composition by arranging them parallel to the picture plane. The resulting serene setting is replete with references to Greco-Roman civilization, including column fragments, an obelisk, and a temple. For Poussin and his friends and patrons, Christianity was closely linked to Stoic philosophy, which emphasized reason, unity, and serenity. Scholars now regard Poussin’s art, more than that of any other seventeenth-century European artist, as synonymous with classicism, the philosophy that prized the model of ancient Greek and Roman art and architecture. Born in France, Poussin spent most of his career in Rome, painting for an educated elite. Along with Landscape with Saint Matthew (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), painted the same year, Landscape with Saint John on Patmos may have been part of a planned series including all four evangelists.

Object facts

• Title: Landscape with Saint John on Patmos
• Date: 1640
• Artist attribution: Nicolas Poussin (French, 1594–1665)
• Place of origin: France
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 100.3 × 136.4 cm (39 1/2 × 53 5/8 in.); Framed: 128.6 × 164.1 cm (50 5/8 × 64 5/8 in.)
• Type: Painting
• Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
• Reference number: 1930.500

Collection credit

A. A. Munger Collection

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