Evangelist Mark

The saint is shown from the chest up, resting his head on his hand in a classic pose of intellectual or spiritual reflection. Behind him, the face of a lion emerges from the shadows, serving as his traditional symbolic attribute. The composition is tightly framed within a circular border containing Latin verses that compare the saint's fervor to the strength of the lion.

This work represents the 'Tetramorph,' a symbolic system where the four Evangelists are linked to specific animal forms from the visions of Ezekiel and Revelation. In Renaissance natural philosophy and Western esotericism, these four figures were often mapped onto the four elements and the four fixed signs of the zodiac, with Mark and his lion corresponding to the element of Fire and the constellation Leo.