Saint John the Evangelist

In the upper tier of the Faenza altarpiece the two Saints John faced each other across the Virgin, and Costa painted them on a larger scale than Peter and Philip in the tier below. This is John the Evangelist, seated on a stone ledge against a plain blue sky. He holds a very fine quill in his right hand, and under his left a long scroll curls across his knee and drops over the edge of the ledge. The scroll is still blank. His face is turned up toward a light from above, as if he were waiting to be told the words, which is how the Middle Ages pictured the writing of his Gospel. Across the altarpiece the Baptist holds a scroll too, and his is already lettered.