![Chalice of Saint John the Evangelist [reverse] by Hans Memling](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Redirect/file/C%C3%A1liz_de_San_Juan_el_Evangelista%2C_por_Hans_Memling.jpg&width=1200)
Chalice of Saint John the Evangelist [reverse]
Hans Memling·c. 1470/1475
Historical Context
The Chalice of Saint John the Evangelist forms the reverse of Memling's Saint Veronica panel, combining two devotional images in a single portable diptych. John's attribute — the poisoned chalice from which a serpent or demon is rising, symbolizing the poison's harmlessness when blessed — was associated with his role as patron of booksellers, editors, and poisoning victims. The chalice image on the panel reverse was visible when the devotional work was closed, providing a secondary devotional focus while protecting the primary image on the front. The combination of Veronica and John — two devotional images associated with specific narrative moments from Christ's life and aftermath — suggests a program of devotional meditation on the full arc of the salvation narrative.
Technical Analysis
Memling renders the chalice with the meticulous illusionism characteristic of Netherlandish painting, using precise oil glazes to create convincing metallic surfaces and translucent liquid effects on the small panel format.
Provenance
Probably Bernardo Bembo, Venice or Verona [d. 1519]. Probably his son, Cardinal Pietro Bembo [1470-1547], Padua.[1] Nicolai Nikitich Demidov, Prince of San Donato [1773-1828], near Florence;[2] his son, Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, Prince of San Donato [1812-1870], near Florence; (his sale, Paris, 3 March 1870, no. 204, repro., etching by Rajou). Private collection, Italy, until c. 1928.[3] (Matthiesen Gallery, Berlin). (Paul Cassirer, Berlin).[4] Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza [1875-1947], Schloss Rohoncz, Hungary, and later, Villa Favorita, Lugano-Castagnola, Switzerland, by 1930;[5] on consigment 1950 with (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); purchased 1951 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; [6] gift 1952 by exchange to NGA. [1] Letter of 31 August 1502 from Carlo Bembo, son of Bernardo, to Isabella d'Este, accompanying a loan of paintings to her in Mantua. The letter was published by Vittorio Cian, "Pietro Bembo e Isabella d'Este Gonzaga. Note e documenti," _Giornale storico della letteratura italiana_ 9 (1887), 85-86. Bernardo Bembo was at that time away from Venice on a diplomatic mission. Carlo Bembo died in 1503. For the Bembo family see _Dizionario biografico degli italiani_ (Rome, 1966), 8: 103-109 and 133-151. Approximately thirty years later (after Bernardo's death), Marcantonio Michiel's notes on what seems to be this diptych name the owner as the poet Pietro Bembo, another son of Bernardo: "The little painting with two wings of Saint John the Baptist clothed, with a lamb that sits in a landscape on one side, and Our Lady with the little Child on the other [side] in another landscape, by the hand of Hans Memling, year 1470, this being true." D. Jacopo Morelli, _Notizia d'opere di disegno_ (Bassano, 1800), 17, and Theodor von Frimmel, _Der Anonimo Morelliano (Quellenschriften für Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttechnik_) N.F. I (Vienna, 1896), 86. Pietro Bembo's paintings were then in Padua. Jennifer Fletcher, "Marcantonio Michiel: his friends and collection," _Burlington Magazine_ 123 (1981), 461 dates Michiel's notice of Pietro Bembo's collection in the 1520's or early 1530's. [2] According to the catalogue of the Demidov sale, 3 March 1870, no. 204. [3] According to Max J. Friedländer, _Die altniederländishe Malerei_, 14 vols. (Berlin and Leiden, 1928), 6: 125. [4] According to Friedländer, in _Unknown Masterpieces in Public and Private Collections_, ed. by W.R. Valentiner, (London, 1930), unpaginated, no. 27. [The list of references published in the NGA systematic catalogue entry erroneously cites no. 37 rather than no. 27.] [5] According to the exhibition catalogue, _Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz_, Munich, Neue Pinakothek, 1930, no. 222. [6] Knoedler commission book no. 4, p. 143, no. CA 3725 and sales book no. 16, p. 310, M. Knoedler & Co. Records, Getty Research Institute (copies NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1908).
