Vision of John the Evangelist

The Master of the Vision of Saint John's Vision of John the Evangelist, painted around 1450 and now in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, depicts the Apostle John receiving his apocalyptic vision on the island of Patmos — the foundation experience of the Book of Revelation, one of the most powerful and contested texts in the Christian tradition. The vision of John on Patmos showed the aged apostle seated on the rocky island shore, writing his Revelation while the heavenly visions of the seven seals, the four horsemen, the woman clothed with the sun, and the New Jerusalem appear before him.

Tempera on panel. The composition divides between the earthly and heavenly realms — John below on Patmos with his pen and book, the apocalyptic visions above appearing in the sky or in a separate register.