Italian school; XVIII century. "St. John ante portam latinam". Oil on canvas. Measurements: 65 x 67 cm (frame). In the center of the scene an old San Juan burns inside a pot, while it is contemplated by a multitude that is arranged to the sides of the figure of the saint. It is a scene that reflects one of the tortures to which Diocletian subjected the saint. Prohibiting all kinds of religious manifestations, Diocletian embarked on the task of persecuting all those who professed Christianity, it was at that moment when he warned St. John about the danger and the fate of his evangelizing work. The saint renounced to the demands of Diocletian, so he was captured and tortured to death. One of those tortures is the one reflected in this scene, where the saint has been introduced into a jar of boiling oil, however, with the help of God, St. John did not suffer the pain of such action, a fact that can be seen in this scene in which the saint appears standing, with no signs of pain and with a gesture above all evangelizing. The most poetic and conceptual of the four evangelists, John the Evangelist is usually assimilated to the figure of the "beloved disciple", and the writings tell that after the martyrdom of Peter and Paul he settled in Ephesus. Tradition has it that he was taken to Rome, where the emperor Domitian ordered him to be burned with boiling oil. He is not considered a martyred apostle according to tradition, since he was saved from martyrdom and was exiled to the island of Patmos, where he wrote the Apocalypse. St. John the Evangelist is one of the figures who appears most often in the narratives and plastic representations of the Passion of Christ. He is usually represented at the foot of the cross next to the Virgin, and it was he who leaned his head on the chest of Jesus at the Last Supper, being revealed to him the name of the disciple who would betray his master. Dimensions 65 x 67 cm (frame).