St. John in art

German Version English Version

--- St. John at the Last Supper ---

With the huge commercial success of Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code", some of the theories from this book became very popular. One of them says that Leonardo da Vinci placed Mary Magdalene and not St. John next to Jesus in his Last Supper painting. But a lot of other artist gave St. John, who was called "the beloved disciple" in the Bible, a certain look, which is now considered by many people as "feminine", but not necessarily five centuries ago. Since ancient times he was believed to be very young, so young that he did not even have a real growth of beard. You can also see his long hair and the devouted gestures on many other paintings of the Renaissance. This hairstyle was very fashionable for young Italians during the time of Leonardo da Vinci. It should be noted that not only John, but also other apostles were sometimes depicted in the same way.

We must try to understand the viewpoint of these artists, who grew up in a very androcentric environment - men and boys had a far more important position in this society than in the western world of today. The ideal of beauty since the 19th century became very gynocentric - a cute face is since then usually interpreted as "feminine", although most traits of a woman aren't specifically female. Compare the face of a pretty actress with the ones of young boys and you see it yourself: what still remains of the so called "Kindchenschema" makes most people believe that women would be the beautiful gender. Since St. John was considered to be very young, he was simply not old enough to look very adult. That is the reason, why people mistake him for a female, just like many long haired boys were mistaken for girls by elderly people during the 70s. They were not used to that look just like most Dan Brown fans are not familiar with depictions of St. John, done by other artists. Because of that, I decided to show you some examples from medieval times, the Renaissance and the Baroque era to underline my arguments. (Click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

Duccio 1308 - 1311	Pietro Lorenzetti c. 1320	Giotto 1320 - 1325	Jaume Serra 1370 - 1400	Bertram von Minden 1390 - 1400
Master of Raigen 1410 - 1420	Sassetta 1423	Andrea del Castagno c. 1447	Jaume Baço Jacomart c. 1450	Dieric Bouts the elder 1464 - 1467
Taddeo Crivelli 1469	Jaume Huguet c. 1470	Cosimo Rosselli 1481 - 1482	Domenico Ghirlandaio 1480	Domenico Ghirlandaio c. 1486
Gil de Siloe 1496 - 1499	unknown Spanish Master 1498 - 1504	Luca Signorelli 1502	Master Paul of Lõcse 1508 - 1517	Hans Schäufelin 1515
Jörg Ratgeb 1519	Andrea del Sarto 1520 - 1525	Bernaert van Orley 1520 - 1530	Hans Holbein the younger 1524 - 1525	Jacobo Bassano 1542
Juan de Juanes c. 1560	El Greco 1568	Daniele Crespi 1624 - 1625	Valentin de Boulogne 1625 - 1626	Philippe de Champaigne 1630

--- Other depictions of the Apostle ---

The following paintings present the apostle in another context. Like in the Last Supper, he was depicted by most artists as a long haired teenager. Other painters, especially those from Germany and the Netherlands, gave him an older appearance, but even there he is almost always beardless. Again you'll see that Leonardo da Vinci's way to portray him was hardly so unusual as Dan Brown wants us to believe. Even artists, who couldn't see Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" before they started doing their own work, depicted the apostle like that, so everybody, who claims they just copied Leonardo da Vinci's idea, is therefore wrong.

Giotto "Washing of the feet" 1304 - 1306	Duccio "Washing of the feet" 1308 - 1311	unknown German master "Jesus Christ and the Apostle John" c. 1320	unknown German master "Jesus Christ and the Apostle John" c. 1320	Simone Martini "Crucifixion" 1333
Giovanni da Milano "Crucifixion" c. 1350	Andrea da Firenze "Crucifixion" 1370 - 1377	Master of Brügge "Crucifixion" c. 1400	Jean Malouel "Pietà" 1400 - 1410	Antonio da Firenze "Crucifixion" 1400 - 1450
Master of Flémalle "Entombment" 1410 - 1420	Masaccio "Crucifixion" c. 1426	Jan van Eyck "Kreuzigung" c. 1430	Fra Angelico "Entombment" 1438 - 1440	Dieric Bouts the elder "Christ in the House of Simon" c. 1440
Andrea del Castagno "Crucifixion" 1440 - 1441	Giovanni Bellini "Pietà" 1455	Andrea Mantegna "Crucifixion" 1457 - 1459	Enguerrand Charonton "Pietà" um 1460	Hans Pleydenwurff "Deposition" 1465
Hugo van der Goes "Lamentation" 1467 - 1468	Hans Memling "Lamentation" 1475 - 1480	Master of the Housebook "Lamentation" 1480 - 1485	Carlo Crivelli "Lamentation" 1485	Francesco Francia "Crucifixion" c. 1485
Pedro Sanchez "Entombment" c. 1490	Sandro Botticelli "Pietà" c. 1490	Albrecht Dürer "Lamentation" 1494 - 1497	Perugino "Pietà" 1494 - 1495	Perugino "Transfiguration" c. 1498
Raffaello "Crucifixion" 1502 - 1503	Vincenzo Civerchio "Preparation for the Last Supper" 1504	Master of St Martin "Lamentation" 1509	Gerard David "Deposition" 1510 - 1515	unknown Italian master "Lamentation" 1519
Albrecht Altdorfer "Crucifixion" 1520	Il Sodoma "Pietà" 1533	Pieter Coecke van Aelst "Deposition" c. 1535	Bronzino "Crucifixion" 1545	Giorgio Vasari "The Garden of Gethsemane" c. 1570

--- St. John the Evangelist ---

According to the Christian tradion, the Apostle John and John the Evangelist would be one and the same person. It doesn't matter, whether modern experts share that idea, since artists from medieval times, the Renaissance and the Baroque era only knew, what everybody was told back then. That is why the Evangelist is often depicted in the same way as the Apostle. Sometimes we see a bearded John the Evangelist, especially when the artist wants to show how he looked like at the end of his life as he was said to have died at a very old age.

Cimabue 1301 - 1302	Pietro Lorenzetti c. 1320	Limbourg Brothers 1412 - 1416	Jan van Eyck 1432	Enguerrand Charonton 1452
Master of Ulm c. 1470	Martin Schongauer 1470 - 1475	Hans Memling 1475	Veit Stoss 1477 - 1489	Hieronymus Bosch c. 1490
Tilman Riemenschneider 1490 - 1492	Master of St Wolfgang 1497	Fra Bartolommeo 1504	Gerard David 1505	Tilman Riemenschneider 1505 - 1510
Hans Baldung c. 1515	Andrea del Sarto 1517	Dosso Dossi c. 1520	Correggio 1520 - 1524	Juan de Juanes 1545 - 1550
Federico Barocci 1580	Guido Reni 1594 - 1598	El Greco 1595 - 1604	El Greco c. 1608	Joachim A. Wtewael 1610 - 1615
Jacob Jordaens c. 1620	Alessandro Algardi 1629	Francesco Furini c. 1630	Francisco de Zurbarán 1633	Alonso Cano 1646 - 1650

--- Pictures of young males by Leonardo da Vinci
and other Renaissance artists ---

Here are some other examples that give you a good idea, how young males were usually depicted in the art of the Renaissance. As I said before, these faces look "feminine" to modern eyes, but not to the sculptors and painters themselves. They looked for a higher, eternally youthful ideal of beauty, which could be described as "angelic". You can see that very well at these five angels that are displayed here. It is interesting to note that during the 19th century, angels really became women, as they now had female breasts, as a result of the different (much more bourgeois and heterosexual orientated) zeitgeist, while the angels of the Renaissance still had a flat chest.

Following Dan Brown's logic, a sketch for St. Philip would also "clearly show a woman". His assumption that Leonardo da Vinci would have replaced John with Mary Magdalene is getting even more absurd, when you keep in mind that many biographers, for example Serge Bramly, tend to think that Leonardo da Vinci and several other Renaissance artists were mainly, if not exclusively attracted to these beardless young males - their students and models. In the case of Leonardo da Vinci, one of them was nicknamed "Salai" (Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno). It's very much possible that Salai even modelled for "The Last Supper" as he was in his mid teens, when Leonardo did this famous wall-painting. He also looked very much like the St. John in this painting, especially if you compare it with "The Angel Incarnate". Besides that, they even have the same name, as Gian is only an Italian version of John.

Leonardo da Vinci "Study of a naked Man with a stab" 1476 - 1480	Leonardo da Vinci "Head of a Youth with curly hair" c. 1478	Leonardo da Vinci "Studies of Heads in Profile" 1478 - 1480	Leonardo da Vinci "Sketch of St. Philip for The Last Supper" c. 1495	Leonardo da Vinci "Heads of an old Man and a Youth" 1495 - 1500
Leonardo da Vinci "Study of a Young Boy" (Salai?) undated	unknown Artist "Portrait of Salai" (?) undated	Leonardo da Vinci "Bacchus" 1510 - 1515	Leonardo da Vinci "St. John the Baptist" 1513 - 1516	Leonardo da Vinci "The Angel Incarnate" (Salai?) c. 1513
Simon Marmion "Choir of Angels" c. 1459	Francesco Botticini "Three Archangels and Tobias" (Michael) c. 1470	Hans Memling "The Archangel St. Michael" c. 1479	Sandro Botticelli "Altar (St. Michael)" c. 1490	Domenico Ghirlandaio "Madonna in Glory with Saints" (Michael) 1490 - 96
Perugino "Tobias with the Angel Raphael" 1500 - 1505	Raffaello "St. Michael trampling the Devil" c. 1505	Luca Signorelli "The Trinity, the Virgin & Two Saints" (Michael) 1510	Luca Signorelli "The Trinity, the Virgin & Two Saints" (Gabriel) 1510	Bronzino "The Archangel St. Michael" 1540 - 1541
Donatello "David" c. 1440	Andrea Mantegna "St. George" c. 1460	Nuno Gonçalves "St. Vincent" c. 1460	Verrocchio "David" 1475	Hans Memling "Young man at prayer" c. 1475
Antonello da Messina "St. Sebastian" 1476 - 1477	Sandro Botticelli "Portrait of a young Man" c. 1477	Sandro Botticelli "Portrait of a Youth" c. 1482 - 1483	Pinturicchio "Portrait of a Boy" 1482 - 1485	Master of the Housebook "Loving Couple of Gotha" 1480 - 1485
Giovanni Bellini "Madonna with Child and St. Peter & St. Sebastian" c. 1487	Domenico Ghirlandaio "Adoration of the Magi" 1488	Lorenzo Costa "St. Sebastian" 1490 - 1491	Albrecht Dürer "Self-Portrait" 1493	Perugino "Portrait of a Youth" 1495
Perugino "Apollon and Marsyas" c. 1496	Luca Signorelli "Resurrection of the Flesh" 1499 - 1502	Raffaello "St. Sebastian" 1501 - 1502	Pinturicchio "The Crowning of Piccolomini" 1502 - 1507	Raffaello "Portrait of Pietro Bembo" c. 1504
Raffaello "Self-Portrait" 1506	Giorgione "Portrait of a Youth" 1508 - 1510	Michelangelo "Ignudo" 1509 - 1510	Baldassare Peruzzi "The Abduction of Ganymede" 1510	Raffaello "Portrait of Bindo Altoviti" 1512
Parmigianino "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror" c. 1524	Correggio "Portrait of a Boy" 1525	Giovanni F. Caroto "Read-headed Youth Holding a Drawing" c. 1525	Andrea del Sarto "St. John the Baptist" 1528	Bronzino "St. John the Baptist" 1550 - 1555