Saint John on Patmos

Saint John on Patmos

Saint John on Patmos

Artist:Hans Baldung (called Hans Baldung Grien) (German, Schwäbisch Gmünd (?) 1484/85–1545 Strasbourg (Strassburg))
Date:ca. 1511
Medium:Oil, gold, and white metal on spruce
Dimensions:Overall 35 1/4 x 30 1/4 in. (89.5 x 76.8 cm); painted surface 34 3/8 x 29 3/4 in. (87.3 x 75.6 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Purchase, Rogers and Fletcher Funds; The Vincent Astor Foundation, The Dillon Fund, The Charles Engelhard Foundation, Lawrence A. Fleischman, Mrs. Henry J. Heinz II, The Willard T. C. Johnson Foundation Inc., Reliance Group Holdings Inc., Baron H. H. Thyssen-Bornemisza, and Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman Gifts; Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; special funds; and other gifts and bequests, by exchange, 1983
Accession Number:1983.451
Rights and Reproduction:
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 643
A painter and printmaker of great originality, Baldung was trained in Dürer’s Nuremberg studio before he established his own workshop in Strasbourg in 1509. This painting shows Saint John in exile on the island of Patmos, experiencing a vision of the Virgin as he writes his Book of Revelation. The panel originally joined two others—Saint Anne with the Christ Child, the Virgin, and Saint John the Baptist (National Gallery of Art, Washington) and the Mass of Saint Gregory (Cleveland Museum of Art)—to form a triptych, commissioned by the Order of Sankt Johann in Jerusalem at Grünenwörth in Strasbourg.

Provenance
Church of the Order of Saint John in Jerusalem, Grünen Wörth, near Strasbourg (1511–1633; cloister destroyed and possessions placed in storage, 1633–about 1687; relocated to the church in the monastery of Saint Mark, Strasbourg, 1687–at least 1741, inv. no. 25; possessions dispersed during the French Revolution, after 1789); a village church, Alsace (until shortly after 1870); Dr. Georges-Joseph Wimpfen, Colmar (shortly after 1870–d. 1879); his son, Général Joseph-Émile Georges Wimpfen, Paris (1879–?until d. 1949); [P. de Boer, Amsterdam, until 1955; sold to Becker]; Dr. Heinrich Becker, Dortmund (1955–71; sale, Sotheby's, London, December 8, 1971, no. 28, sold for £120,000 to Virch); [Claus Virch, Paris, 1971–83; on extended loan to the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, 1975–83; sold to Thaw]; [Eugene Thaw, New York, 1983; sold to MMA]

Copyright Image
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