Simone Martini

Saint John the Evangelist

Siena, 1320

Tempera on wood

41.7 x 30.3 cm

This panel formed the right panel of a portable triptych (a painting of three parts) with the crucified Christ in the centre, and the Virgin Mary on the left. These two fragments remain lost.

In 1997, the Barber commissioned icon painter Peter Murphy and jeweller and craftsperson Peter Slusarczuk to produce a replica of the triptych. This revealed what the original might have looked like. A triptych like this would have been used as a tool for Christian worship and prayer. Candles would have been lit in front of the panel, enabling the gold to glisten and shine.

Saint John the Evangelist was one of Jesus’s closest friends, and a witness of his death by crucifixion. John’s grief is shown in this panel through his narrowed eyes and clasped hands. Simone was one of the first Italian artists to paint naturalistic human emotion. His revolutionary style enjoyed great popularity in his native Siena, Naples, Pisa, Assisi, and the papal court in Avignon, France.

The vibrancy of the panel was improved during conservation treatment at The National Gallery in London in 2022. John’s red and blue garments were originally painted with vermillion (usually crushed cochineal beetles) and ultramarine (lapis lazuli) respectively. These pigments were extremely precious commodities. They symbolise both the artistic value of this panel and the spiritual significance of the subject.

Purchased 1938 (No.38.12)

Further reading:

Hemsoll, David, ‘Simone Martini’s St John the Evangelist re-examined: a panel from an early portable triptych’, Apollo, 147, 1988, pp. 3-10.

Schmidt, Victor Michael, Painted Piety: Panel Paintings for Personal Devotion, Florence, 2005.