Saint John the Evangelist (El Greco, Madrid) explained

Saint John the Evangelist
Artist:	El Greco
Year:	c.1605
Medium:	oil on canvas
Museum:	Museo del Prado
City:	Madrid
Height Metric:	90
Width Metric:	77

Saint John the Evangelist is a c.1605 work by El Greco, produced towards the end of his time in Toledo, Spain.^[1] It now hangs in the Museo del Prado, to which it was left in 1921 by the collector César Cabañas Caballero.^[2]

The painting shows John the Evangelist as a young man holding a chalice, with a small dragon in it, referring to his surviving a poisoned cup of wine in prison. It is very similar to the painting of the same subject by the same painter in Toledo Cathedral.

See also

• List of works by El Greco

Bibliography (in Spanish)

• ÁLVAREZ LOPERA, José, El Greco, Madrid, Arlanza, 2005, Biblioteca «Descubrir el Arte», (colección «Grandes maestros»). .
• SCHOLZ-HÄNSEL, Michael, El Greco, Colonia, Taschen, 2003. .
• ArteHistoria.com. «San Juan Evangelista». [Consulta: 09.01.2011].

Notes and References

1. Web site: St. John the Evangelist (c. 1600) by El Greco . . 26 November 2023 .
2. Web site: Saint John the Evangelist . . 24 July 2020.