In her book, Diego Velázquez’s Early Paintings and the Culture of Seventeenth-Century Seville, Tanya J. Tiffany offers numerous insights into the multiplicity of meanings found in St. John the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos. Her dissertation focuses on the historical and cultural setting that Velázquez painted this picture and its companion piece, and more specifically how the original audience would have interpreted such images while living in Golden Age Spain (26). Tiffany stresses throughout her discourse that the two companion pieces must be analyzed and interpreted side by side in order to fully comprehend their significance. She notes that the two pieces were originally displayed in the chapter hall of the monastery, where friars and novices would often assemble and pray as a community. From this context, she concludes that both paintings were created with the intention of capturing and relating Carmelite doctrine to a monastic audience. The Carmelites were strong believers of the Immaculate Conception and had a high Mariology. For the Friars of El Carmen, the image of the Virgin represented “a site of devotion and desire” (26). The monks constantly battled with controlling their sexual desires when gazing upon women, and even the Virgin Mary was no exception to this issue. It is for this reason, Tiffany argues, that Velázquez paints St. John the Evangelist as a young man looking up towards the Virgin. By examining various writings of seventeenth century Carmelite monks, she proves that “John doubtlessly served as a ‘model of purity’… encouraging novices to imitate the evangelist and in consecrating their lives to the lord” (45). St. John the Evangelist thus gave the friars, who would look at the painting on a daily basis, a figure that they could easily relate to.
After reading Tiffany’s perceptive commentary on Velázquez and the context in which he painted, my impression of this piece drastically changed. My initial thoughts were that the painting simply represented a scene from Revelation and John’s overall writing of the book through divine visions. However, learning about the friars of El Carmen (specifically about their doctrine and how the viewed Mary and St. John) brought several new interpretations to the surface for me. Throughout her discourse I found myself thinking back on some of the key points Frilingos addressed when talking about the dangers of viewing. The Lamb was a spectacle that represented the dangers of getting too close to monsters. St the same time, it also offered the audience an opportunity to demonstrate self-control and thus “made men” out of the extratextual spectators (Frilingos 93). According to Tiffany the Immaculate Virgin found in Revelation 12:1 also served as a potential danger to the viewer’s ability to control his emotions. The image of St. John then gave a perfect example of how to gaze upon the spectacle of the sun woman and maintain complete mastery over the emotions.
Works Cited:
Tanya J. Tiffany, Diego Velázquez’s Early Paintings and the Culture of Seventeenth-Century Seville (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012), 20-50