Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Francis of Assisi converse amidst a rocky landscape with rolling hills in the background and a blue sky full of clouds. The two saints are standing and are depicted according to more traditional iconography. To the left of the viewer, Saint John appears as a beardless young man with long blond hair, wearing a blue tunic and pink cloak. He blesses the chalice from which a small dragon sprouts, a reminder of the failed attempt to poison the apostle himself. On the ground next to Saint John, there is an eagle that distinguishes him from the four evangelists. On the opposite side, Saint Francis contemplates the Evangelist while holding his right hand to his chest, a hand that reveals the characteristic Christian stigma. He wears the traditional grey habit, with a long cincture tied around his waist.

This pairing of two saints from such disparate time periods, a 1st-century apostle and the great saint of Christianity who lived between the 12th and 13th centuries, is a replica of the one located in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence. The latter is a painting produced with the participation of the workshop from around 1600, which was hung in the Duke of Alcudia’s collections at the Boadilla del Monte Palace in Madrid during the early 20th century.

Ruiz Gómez, Leticia, El Greco en el Museo Nacional del Prado: catálogo razonado, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2007, p.226-228