How you can use this image
This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).
Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.
The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.
Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.
Buy a print or image licence
You can purchase this reproduction
If you have any products in your basket we recommend that you complete your purchase from Art UK before you leave our site to avoid losing your purchases.
Notes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
Saint John the Evangelist holds a chalice from which a serpent escapes. He appears on the inside of the left shutter of a small triptych (a painting in three parts), the central panel and other wing of which are also in the National Gallery’s collection. They were painted for the Welsh nobleman and diplomat Sir John Donne, probably in the late 1470s. According to the apocryphal Acts of Saint John, the saint was made to drink poison but survived; the serpent here symbolises the poison. Although this figure of Saint John was presumably taken from a workshop pattern, infrared reflectograms show that the artist drew several versions of the hands and chalice before he was satisfied with them, and they were finally painted in slightly different position to any of the underdrawings.
Title
Saint John the Evangelist
Date
about 1478
Medium
Oil on oak
Measurements
H 71 x W 30.5 cm
Accession number
NG6275.3
Acquisition method
Acquired under the terms of the Finance Act from the Duke of Devonshire's Collection, 1957
Work type
Painting
The National Gallery, London
Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England
-
Angel with a Sword The Wallace Collection -
A Jeering Crowd: Fragment of a Mocking of Christ National Galleries of Scotland: National -
Saint John the Baptist The National Gallery, London -
The Virgin and Child with an Angel, Saint George and a Donor The National Gallery, London -
Virgin and Child The National Gallery, London -
The Virgin and Child with Saints and Donors (The Donne Triptych) The National Gallery, London -
Saint John the Evangelist The National Gallery, London - 6 more