Francesco Ghissi, St. John the Evangelist Raises Satheus to Life

Circa 1370
Tempera on wood, gold ground
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 69.280.1
Gift of Mrs. W. Murray Crane, 1969

Another panel in Ghissi's series pictures the moments before and after the one seen here. In the right side of that panel Satheus's parents beg John for help with their son, who has died. In this panel, he resurrects Satheus, who he says has been in Hell because he was "blinded with fleshly love." He tells the man to describe the torments of Hell to two young men he has been counseling with no great success. The young men, Actaeus and Eugenius, are standing behind John. The left side of the other panel shows the revived Satheus explaining things to the two young men, who accept his counsel and repent.

The museum has one other panel from Ghissi's series on the life of St. John the Evangelist, "St. John Causes a Pagan Temple to Collapse." Four other panels are known. All were originally on the sides of a Crucifixion image now in the Art Institute of Chicago.

Read more about images of St. John the Evangelist.

Photographed at the Metropolitan by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.