Landscape with Saint John on Patmos1640
Saint John the Evangelist, robed in red and yellow, sits with his book among the ruins of classical buildings on the island of Patmos, where he received the visions of the Book of Revelation, and an ordered landscape stretches away under a calm sky. More about this work
About this work
Saint John the Evangelist, robed in red and yellow, sits with his book among the ruins of classical buildings on the island of Patmos, where he received the visions of the Book of Revelation, and an ordered landscape stretches away under a calm sky. Poussin painted the picture in Rome in 1640, together with a companion showing Saint Matthew, now in Berlin, possibly as part of a planned series of the four evangelists. The broken columns and fallen stones suggest the pagan world giving way to the Christian, set within a landscape built with the clarity of a geometric proof.
Written by Ochre Editions.
What you’re looking at
Painting of Greek landscape, classical architecture, yellow, red robed man reading.
Description from the Art Institute of Chicago.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Nicolas Poussin
French, 1594–1665 · Born in Les Andelys; died in Rome.
Poussin left Normandy for Paris and in 1624 settled in Rome, where he spent almost all his career. After an early public commission for St Peter’s, he worked mainly for private collectors on easel paintings of classical, biblical and mythological subjects, ordered with rigorous clarity and reasoned gesture. A brief, unhappy spell as court painter in Paris in 1640–42 confirmed his preference for Rome. His later landscapes give nature a calm, architectural order, and his example became the touchstone of the French Academy.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Art Institute of Chicago has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1930.500
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
