St. John on the Island of Patmos (1550/60): Artwork and History

St. John on the Island of Patmos (1550/60) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Jean Duvet French, 1485-after 1561.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

Also known as The Revelation of Saint John the Evangelist, this engraving shows the writer at work within a resplendent church interior rather than on a remote island. The book in his lap reads “In the beginning was the word,” the first verse of his gospel. The evangelist appears with his eyes shut, hand pressed to his brow as he searches for the next line. Inspiration cannot be far away, for John’s attribute, the eagle, is perched on his shoulders, giving him a borrowed pair of wings, with the Holy Trinity hovering in the air above to observe his progress.

Object facts

• Title: St. John on the Island of Patmos
• Date: 1550/60
• Artist attribution: Jean Duvet French, 1485-after 1561
• Place of origin: France
• Medium: Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
• Dimensions: Plate: 29.7 × 21.1 cm (11 3/4 × 8 5/16 in.); Sheet: 31.5 × 23 cm (12 7/16 × 9 1/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1956.1050

Collection credit

Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.

View the original

Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.

The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.