This monumental figure of St. John the Evangelist was painted between 1454 and 1469 by Piero della Francesca. Of the seven paintings by this artist in American collections, the Frick is home to four of them.

The panel showing a single saint comes from an altarpiece painted for the high altar of the Augustinian church in Borgo San Sepolcro, Piero’s hometown in the upper Tiber valley, in central Italy. The altarpiece featured four saints, which are now divided among museums around the world: a Saint Augustine in Lisbon, a Saint Michael in London, and a Saint Nicholas of Tolentino in Milan. The two pairs of saints originally flanked a now-lost central compartment, depicting either an enthroned Virgin and Child or the Coronation of the Virgin. In the lower left corner of the St. John panel, you can still see the porphyry step of the Virgin’s throne.

St. John appears here majestically clad in a crimson toga-like garment, as much enveloped in it as he is in his reading. John is the author of one of the four Gospels and of the last book of the New Testament: the Book of Revelation (or the Apocalypse). His robe is decorated with jewels and pearls and gold filigree. Yet, for all this lavish ornamentation, the saint is barefoot.

The three other works by Piero and his workshop in this room are from the same altarpiece. The small Crucifixion formed part of the base of the altarpiece and was bequeathed to the Frick by John D. Rockefeller Jr. On each side of St. John are two additional panels. They are half-length depictions of a nun and monk wearing the dark habits of the Augustinian order, and they are possibly Saint Monica (the mother of Saint Augustine) and the Blessed Angelo Scarpetti, a much venerated figure in Borgo San Sepolcro, whose body was buried in the church of Sant’Agostino.