Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos

Hieronymus Bosch composed this contemplative panel around 1489, showing Saint John writing the Book of Revelation on the Greek island of Patmos. The saint sits on heightened ground in his pale red robes, quill poised mid-air, gazing upward at a golden vision of the Virgin Mary with the infant Christ.

An angel with peacock-feathered wings points toward the heavenly apparition in the upper left corner. This is notably the earliest painting to bear Bosch's signature and may contain a caricature self-portrait. The reverse side features a tondo depicting Passion scenes. Now at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, the panel was originally part of an altarpiece likely made for St. John's Cathedral in 's-Hertogenbosch.