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represent him in general with his gospel and his attendant ox, winged or unwinged, as already described; but in Greek Art, and in those schools of Art which have been particularly under the Byzantine influence (as the early Venetian), we see St. Luke as evangelist young and beardless, holding the portrait of the Virgin as his attribute in one hand, and his gospel in the other. A beautiful figure of St. Luke as evangelist and painter is in the famous " Heures d'Anne de Bretagne."

In an engraving by Lucas v. Leyden, executed as it should seem in honour of his patron saint, St. Luke is seated on the back of his ox, writing the gospel; he wears a hood like an old professor, rests his book against the horns of the animal, and his inkstand is suspended on the bough of a tree. But separate devotional figures of him as patron

are as rare as those of St. Matthew.

St. Luke painting the Virgin has been a frequent and favourite subject. The most famous of all is a picture in the Academy of St. Luke, at Rome, ascribed to Raphael. Here St. Luke, kneeling on a footstool before an easel, is busied painting the Virgin with the child in her arms, who appears to him out of heaven sustained by clouds: behind St. Luke stands Raphael himself looking on. Another of the same subject, a very small and beautiful picture, also ascribed to Raphael, is in the Grosvenor Gallery. In neither of these pictures is the treatment quite worthy of that great painter, wanting his delicacy both of sentiment and execution. There is a most curious and quaint example in the Munich Gallery, attributed to Van Eyck: here the Virgin, seated under a rich Gothic canopy, holds on her lap the Infant Christ, in a most stiff attitude; St. Luke, kneeling on one knee, is taking her likeness. There is another, similar in style, by Aldegraef, in the Vienna Gallery. Carlo Maratti represents St. Luke as presenting to the Virgin the picture he has painted of her. St. Luke painting the Madonna and Child, while an angel is grinding his colours, I remember in the Aguado Gallery; a late Spanish picture.2

MS. A.D. 1500. Paris, Bib. Imp.

2 F. Rizi. A.D. 1660.

ST. JOHN.

Lat. Sanctus Johannes Gr. St. John Theologos, or the Divine. Ital. San Giovanni Evangelista. Fr. Saint Jean; Messire Saint Jehan. Ger. Der Heilige Johan. Dec. 27.

A. D. 99.

OF St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke, so little is certainly known, that we have no data on which to found an individual portrait; therefore any representation of them as venerable and inspired teachers suffices to the fancy: but it is quite otherwise with St. John, the most distinguished of the evangelists, and the most beloved of the disciples of our Lord. Of him sufficient is known to convey a distinct impression of his personal character, and an idea of what his personal appearance may have been, supposing this outward semblance to have harmonised with the inward being.

He was the son of the fisherman Zebedee, and, with his brother James, among the first followers of the Saviour. He is emphatically called "the disciple whom Jesus loved;" a preference which he merited, not only from the extreme purity of his life and character, but from his devoted and affectionate nature. He appears to have been at all times the constant companion of his divine Lord; and his life, while the Saviour was on earth, inseparable from His. In all the memorable circumstances recorded in the Gospel he was a party, or at least present. He witnessed the glory of the transfiguration; he leaned on the bosom of Jesus at the last supper; he stood by the cross in the hour of agony; he laid the body of his crucified Master in the sepulchre. After the death of the Virgin Mother, who had been confided to his care, he went about Judæa, preaching the Gospel with St. Peter. He then travelled into Asia Minor, where he founded the Seven Churches, and resided principally at Ephesus. During the persecution of the Christians under Domitian, St. John was sent in fetters to Rome; and, according to a tradition generally received in the Roman Church, he was cast into a cauldron of boiling oil, but was miraculously preserved, and came out of it as out of a refreshing bath." He was then accused of magic, and exiled to the island of Patmos, in the Egean Sea, where he is said to have written his Revelations. After the death of the

Emperor Domitian he was released, and returned to his church at Ephesus; and for the use of the Christians there he is said to have written his gospel, at the age of ninety. A few years afterwards he died in that city, being nearly a century old. All the incidents here touched upon occur frequently as subjects of art, but most of them belong properly to the life of Christ.

The personal character of St. John, at once attractive and picturesque, has rendered him popular as a patron saint, and devotional pictures of him are far more numerous than of any of the other evangelists.

He is represented in one of his three characters: 1. as evangelist; 2. as apostle; 3. as prophet; or the three are combined in one figure. 1. Of the early eagle symbol, I have spoken at length.

In Greek Art, whether as apostle or evangelist, St. John is always an aged man with white hair, and a venerable beard descending to his breast; and by the earlier Latin painters, where he figures as evangelist only, not as apostle, this type has been adhered to; but the later painters set it aside, and St. John the Evangelist, nearly a century old, has all the attributes of the youthful apostle. He is beardless, with light curling hair, and eyes gazing upwards in a rapture of inspiration: he is sometimes seated with his pen and his book, sometimes standing; the attendant eagle always near him, and frequently holding the pen or inkhorn in his beak.

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In some of the old prints and pictures, which represent St. John as writing the gospel, his eyes are turned on the Virgin with the Infant Christ in her arms, who appear as a vision in the skies above; underneath, or on his book, is inscribed, - "The Word was made flesh," or some other text of the same import. The eagle at his side has sometimes the nimbus or a crown of stars', and is then perhaps intended to figure the Holy Ghost.

I remember an instance in which the devil, intent on intercepting the message of reconcilement and "goodwill towards men," which was destined to destroy his empire on earth, appears behind St. John, and is oversetting the ink upon the pages; another, in which he is stealing away the inkhorn.

As in the Missal of Henry VIII. Bodician, Oxford.