I John, Your Brother

I John, your Brother Commentary by Harry O. Maier Cite Share Show Bible Passage At first glance, Diego Velázquez’s Vision of St John the Evangelist is a study of a young man, eyes cast upward to his right, pen in hand, about to write in the book on his lap. Only secondarily does one observe what the young man—John—himself sees: a vision of the woman of Revelation 12:1–4 with the moon and the stars (a figure Christian tradition has interpreted as the Virgin Mary), and the dragon waiting to devour her child. The painting was commissioned for the chapter house of the Shod Carmelites in Seville, to be hung beside The Immaculate Conception, a depiction of a standing Virgin Mary. Velázquez possibly produced the pair to celebrate a recent papal decree defending the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, though the subject was already well-established in Spain and beyond. Without its companion painting, the miniature scale of the vision of the woman gives unqualified prominence to John. Patmos and surrounding details are little more than a mise-en-scène. The darkly shrouded eagle at left, iconographically associated with John, sets up a contrast with John’s garments, whose folds are animated by the fall of light. The painting foreshadows what would make Velázquez famous as (among other things) a portraitist: the naturalism with which he brought his subjects to life. His depiction of John as young when on Patmos departs from contemporary treatments of him as old and bearded. This John is an athletic, dark, handsome, moustachioed Spaniard, with high cheekbones, strong nose and jaw, and heavy eyebrows. His full, parted lips, and smooth face express vitality even as his upwardly gazing deep brown eyes reveal receptivity and depth. Velázquez invites us into the interior life of Revelation’s author. The painting may prompt us to ask, where did the vision that John sees come from? Did it come from beyond him in visions that interrupted his routines, or did it arise internally through rumination and contemplation, partly inspired by the two books at the bottom right, one of them earmarked? Whatever its source, Velázquez’s depiction of the strength and optimism of this young man poised to write suggests someone with a long future ahead of him, notwithstanding the tradition of his martyrdom. Christian tradition has often read Revelation as a prophecy of the end of the world. Velázquez’s naturalistic depiction invites us to contemplate what the Apocalypse reveals to us about life here and now. References Pacheco, Francisco. 1956 [1638]. Arte de la Pintura, ed. by F.J. Sanchez Canton (Madrid: Instituto de Valencia de D. Juan)