St. John the Evangelist

St. John the Evangelist

John Flaxman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Flaxman made this drawing to illustrate his first lecture as Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy, delivered in 1811. Designed to be seen from a distance, the handling is deliberately broad. St. John is one of a series of statues installed in niches adorning the walls of the Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey around the tomb of Henry VII. The chapel itself is considered the last great masterpiece of English medieval architecture, described by John Leland in 1545 as “the wonder of the entire world.” Instead of beginning with a discussion of classical art, Flaxman devoted his first lecture to English sculpture, then moved back to Egypt and Greece. Published posthumously in 1829, the lecture contrasts Pietro Torrigiano's designs for the royal tomb, with the native style of the figures adorning the walls. He wrote that the Italian "figures of the tomb have better proportion and drawing in the naked” but “the figures of the chapel are very superior in natural simplicity and grandeur of character and drapery.” Representing those English qualities, this drawing was reproduced as a lithograph in the published text.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.