17th century, Saint John the Evangelist with the eagle

17th Century Saint John the Evangelist with the Eagle Oil on canvas, 38 x 33 cm With frame, 48 x 42 cm Among the apostles, Saint John is certainly the most frequently depicted: his particularly close relationship with the figure of Christ means that the evangelist is present in most depictions of the most important episodes of the life and passion of Jesus: he is the only one among his disciples to be present even at the foot of the Cross; we find him depicted in the Transfiguration and in the icons that depict the Acts of the Apostles such as the Ascension or Pentecost. There are two most common iconographic versions 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 Christ's beloved disciple, he is usually presented with his head resting on Jesus' chest during the Last Supper; John "the Theologian" is instead commonly painted in a sort of "portrait", rather than as part of an actual biblical scene: he is represented while he is writing some passages of his gospel, with the book open, revealing some verses taken from the sacred scriptures. He can also be depicted with the eagle, which is precisely his symbol. It is to this last iconography that our painting refers: the saint, cloaked in red, is presented during the drafting phase of his gospel. He turns his gaze 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. The representation of the evangelists with their respective symbols of the tetramorph spread in France and Spain since 1100 - one of the earliest examples coincides with the sculptural relief of the portal of the cathedral of Burgos, in Castilla y Leon - and prospered in Italy between the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, remaining successful in the Renaissance and Baroque periods.