Claudio Coello

John of God was born in Portugal in 1495. He underwent a mid-life religious conversion and subsequently founded a shelter for the destitute in Granada. The charitable community that grew up around him became established as the Order of Brothers Hospitallers after his death in 1550. St John immediately became a favoured subject for devotional works commissioned by charitable institutions.

Coello dramatically depicts the saint's experience of his spirituality, with storm clouds advancing from a background plunged into darkness. The scene shows the Christ child appearing to St John in the wild and revealing to him his vocation in Granada. The pomegranate surmounted by a cross symbolizes charity and the resurrection and is the attribute of St John and the Order.