After yesterday's exploration of Hieronymus Bosch, today we took time to focus on just one of Bosch's pieces- "St. John on Patmos". Patmos is an island off the coast of Greece which serves as a longtime home to the Monastery of St. John the Divine. This monastery is a fortified Eastern Orthodox monastery which also goes by the name of the Monastery of St. John the Theologian. During the Renaissance, one of the popular subjects commissioned by religious and wealthy patrons was that of Saint John on Patmos.
Bosch's painting shows the patron saint, John the Evangelist, of the monastery. It is believed that John wrote the book of Revelations while sitting on the island of Patmos. Max used the 30 second look activity to introduce himself to the painting, and then spent a large amount of time trying to decide if "that demon is supposed to be scary or not". Certainly, the demon looked quite friendly and rather duck-like in Max's gouache-painted version.
