The Penance of Saint John Chrysostom is a reflection on a theme prevalent in Dürer's early engraved oeuvre, that of love, lust and temptation.
Saint John Chrysostom (347-407), bishop of Constantinople, was one of the great doctors of the Church and famous for his sermons - his sobriquet means 'the golden mouthed'. The present work, however, concentrates not on his loquacity, but on a far more unpleasant episode in his life. According to the legend, the saint retreated to the Syrian mountains and lived the ascetic life of a hermit for several years when the beautiful daughter of the Emperor took refuge in his hermitage during a storm. Unable to resist temptation and overcome with lust the hermit raped her and, to hide the evidence of his crime, pushed his unfortunate victim off the side of a mountain. When he realised the enormity of his sin he vowed to crawl on all fours and eat grass until God granted him forgiveness.
Dürer's treatment of this dramatic incident is rather curious. The remorseful saint is shown crawling on all-fours in the distance, whereas, rather unexpectedly, the Emperor's daughter sits naked in the centre foreground, apparently unscathed. Even more perplexing is the depiction of a small child which she nurses contentedly. The legend makes no mention of this child, and we can only speculate that Dürer was relying on obscure sources which have not survived to the present day .