The Penance of St. John Chrysostom, Albrecht Dürer, circa 1497

In the background on the left, saint john chrysostom (goldmund, around 354-407) is crawling. At the end of the middle ages, the anti-clerical legend of the hermit in the desert arose about the church father of the eastern church. A king's daughter is said to have strayed into the saint's cave and then become the mother of a child. For this crime, for which no later pope would have canonized him, chrysostom was to fulfill the shameful vow of awaiting the end of his days, naked and crawling on all fours. Object Type: copper engraving print, print. Genre: religious art. Date: circa 1497. Place of creation: Nuremberg. Dimensions: height: 18.2 cm (7.1 in) ; width: 11.8 cm (4.6 in). Medium: engraving. Depicted People: John Chrysostom. Collection: National Gallery of Art. Albrecht Dürer, The Penance of Saint John Chrysostom, c. 1497, NGA 6578