Landscape with Saint John on Patmos

Nicolas Poussin · 1640

Medium

Oil on canvas

Original size

100.3 × 136.4 cm (39 1/2 × 53 5/8 in.); Framed: 128.6 × 164.1 cm (50 5/8 × 64 5/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Baroque

Poussin's 1640 masterpiece places the visionary apostle within a vast, sun-drenched classical landscape where ancient ruins and serene sky carry as much spiritual weight as the saint himself. Nicolas Poussin spent the majority of his career in Rome, absorbing the lessons of antiquity and Raphael, and this painting reflects his deep belief that landscape could serve as a vehicle for philosophical and religious meaning. Rather than dramatic gesture, Poussin works through structure: carefully composed horizontal bands of earth, ruin, water, and sky that guide the eye and calm the mind. The result is a landscape that feels both ideal and contemplative — a world ordered by reason and touched by the divine. This work was conceived as one of a pair; its companion, *Landscape with Saint Matthew and the Angel*, was painted the same year and now resides in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin — the two together representing Poussin's most sustained exploration of the devotional landscape. Our hand-painted oil reproduction on canvas faithfully renders Poussin's luminous tonal range, his precisely weighted composition, and the quiet authority that has made this painting one of the most admired works in the Art Institute of Chicago's collection.