The Two Saint Johns in Art - CANCELLED

Friday 3 July 7.30pm - 8.45pm
With David Lowe

The feast day of both St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist was once on June 24th. Now the feast day of St John the Evangelist is moved to December in the church calendar. This is still a good opportunity to examine how these two revered individuals are portrayed in art both separately and when they come together on the same painting. We will also briefly consider the third St John.  From the young St John the Baptist as the playmate of the Jesus child described in Luke’s gospel and and painted often by Raphael to St John the Evangelist resting his head on Jesus at the Last Supper, so powerfully portrayed by Leonardo. We will examine these as well as many other paintings where the two are represented.

As usual, we will give over our meeting in August to a walk to the National Gallery. It has an excellent collection of Venetian art which will occupy most of the visit. We will also look at paintings of the two St Johns in the gallery. We are usually a small intimate group so we can take our time looking at the paintings properly and discussing them.

You are very welcome to join us at the earlier time of 6:30pm. The tour will last for one and a half hours approximately. We will meet in the entrance area to the Sainsbury Wing opposite the bookshop and close to the foot of the stairway.