 Saint John the Evangelist, 1504–6 Oil on wood panel Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1961 (2989.1) Saint John the Evangelist is one of Christ’s original
twelve apostles, and the only one not to be martyred
for his faith. As in this depiction, Saint John is often
shown as a beautiful, effeminate young man with a
chalice, which could refer to the Last Supper or to the
legend that held that that statespoison in a cup of
contaminated wine rose up in the form of a serpent
when Saint John blessed ita cup of poisoned wine, the
poison rose from the wine in the form of a serpent. In
Piero di Cosimo’s interpretationvision of the legend,
Saint John’s miraculous purification of the fatal drink
feels all the more immediate, asfor the chalice
sitsrests on a ledge that projects beyond the picture
plane into the viewers’ space. |