An Unidentified Print

I have not quite completed my survey of prints and posters that I took to Experienced Goods a few weeks ago (see my blog for September 14th). One of them was the following print:

A print from the Museum in Regensburg, Germany; unknown subject and unknown artist. I have not been able to find this print anywhere on-line. However, my guess is that it is a portrait of St. John the Apostle on the Island of Patmos. The Book of Revelation in the New Testament is attributed to John the Apostle, and it was ostensibly written while he was exiled on the island by the Roman government. (Revelations 9.1). Visions which he had there led to his writing Revelations. In the painting, the subject has a book on his lap, he is having a vision of the Virgin Mary holding the child Jesus, and there is an ocean behind him, suggesting an island venue. There is a lamb resting its head on the subject's knee - the Lamb of God is a prominent theme in the Book of Revelations (and the Gospel of John). Also supporting this guess are some known portraits of the Apostle John on Patmos which are similar in some respects - here are three (1) by Hieronymous Bosch; (2) by an unknown artist; (3) by Baldung Grien.

John on Patmos, Hieronymous Bosch

John on Patmos, unknown artist

John on Patmos, Baldung Grien************************************* These other paintings of John on Patmos all have a vision of the Virgin, a book on the lap, and an ocean. What makes my hypothesis a bit uncertain in my mind, however, is that in my painting, the subject has no pen (in all three of the other paintings, John is holding a pen); and there is something going on with some ships just beyond his fingers which doesn't seem to have a connection to the Book of Revelations. Indeed - he seems to be paying attention to the ships, not to the vision of Mary. Also, the subject is more roughly dressed than in any of the other three paintings. So, I'm not sure. If anyone out there knows the provenance of this painting, please make a comment. *********************************************** Yesterday, we went to Northampton in the afternoon and spent some time with Tamar and Ben. I actually had a chance to talk wth Ben at some length while Ellen and Tamar took Theo for a walk. We talked, among other things, about science, and particularly about what scientists are saying today about the line between human and non-human, and whether some animals (e.g., whales, dolphins, chimps) are thought to possibly use language. I thought possibly yes; Ben wasn't sure. Today (Saturday) John came over for a couple of hours and we had a good visit. Cynthia was up in Windsor, VT with her nephew's family, so he had some time to go out, do some errands, and spend some time with us. I raised the human/non-human issue, and John said that so far as he knows, scientists are very resistant to claiming that any animals have language. They communicate with each other, yes; they can learn sign language (chimps) or can be taught how to use a symbol board to communicate with humans. (dolphins). But this is not language. Hal Whitehead has suggested that whales and dolphins have "culture" but anthropologists object vociferously to using the term "culture" in reference to animal behavior. (Cf. Whitehead and Rendell, The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins (Univ. of Chicago, 2015). This is a very interesting issue and I'm going to try to learn more about it. I found this article on-line: Kevin N. Laland and William Hoppitt, Do Animals Have Culture? It is published in the periodical Evolutionary Anthropology (Vol. 12, 2003). The authors are at the U. St. Andrews and U. Cambridge, UK, respectively. I'll give it a read!