4. attributed to Pieter Aertsen
(1508-1575)

St. John the Evangelist Holding the Poisoned Chalice

(click on image to print)
att. to Aertsen, St. John

St. John the Evangelist Holding the Poisoned Chalice

Original drawing in black ink and grey wash on laid paper, 227 x 89 mm., with a drawn borderline (the borderline replaced at the bottom). Aertsen, known also by his nickname, Lange Pier (Tall Pete), was a Dutch painter, a pupil of Allaert Claesz, who worked in Amsterdam and Antwerp. He painted domestic genre scenes, historical subjects and Catholic imagery, though much of the last was destroyed by the Iconoclasts when Amsterdam became Protestant. No painting of this subject currently exists by him. The legend represented here dates probably from the thirteenth century. When at Ephesus, John was handed a poisoned chalice by the priest of the temple of Diana, as a test of the power of his faith. He blessed the chalice and the poison arose from it in the form of a serpent.