Imaginary Landscape with St. John on Patmos

Hans Bol signed this on the rock beneath Saint John and dated it 1564. It is painted in watercolour on linen, a Mechelen speciality for large and fairly cheap wall pictures, and because such cloths are so fragile, few from those years have survived. This one also counts among the earliest landscapes made on this scale. John sits on the island of Patmos with his eagle beside him, turned toward the vision from the Book of Revelation. High in the storm clouds Mary appears with her child, and below her swirls a many-headed dragon. The landscape soon takes over. A rough sea churns with whales and strange sea creatures, sails crowd toward a harbour town, a castle crowns a crag, and on the clifftop a shepherd watches his flock, all of it running back into a blue distance.