Madrid protects the painting of Saint John the Evangelist as an Asset of Cultural Interest

The Governing Council of the Community of Madrid has declared the painting Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos, attributed to Peter Paul Rubens, as an Asset of Cultural Interest (Bien de Interés Cultural), in the category of individual movable asset. The decision is formalized in Decree 75/2026, of September 9, published in the Official Gazette of the Community of Madrid (BOCM) No. 221, of September 16, 2026, in section I.C of Other Provisions, at the proposal of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sport. The decree shall take effect on the day following its publication.

The declaration is supported by Law 8/2023, of March 30, on the Cultural Heritage of the Community of Madrid, whose articles 12.2 and 16.a) establish the characteristics met by the canvas, and articles 23 and 24, which regulate the procedure. The file was initiated by Resolution of October 29, 2025, from the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and the Spanish Language Office, following the proposal of the Cultural Assets Cataloging Area of the Sub-directorate General of Historical Heritage. The resolution was notified to the interested parties, published on the Transparency Portal, and opened a one-month public information period from its publication in the BOCM on November 19, 2025. There is no record of any allegations being submitted.

Favorable reports from the academies and preventive registration

The file accumulated favorable pronouncements from the consulted institutions:

• The Plenary of the Regional Council of Cultural Heritage of the Community of Madrid, in its session of November 20, 2025, showed its unanimous agreement with the initiation.
• The Royal Academy of History issued a report on January 19, 2026, concluding that the canvas should appear as an important work in its own right and as a testimony to Rubens’ second stay in Spain.
• The Commission of Monuments and Historical Heritage of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando submitted a report on January 19, 2026, ratified on the same day by the Plenary, in which it considers the quality of the painting to be notable and does not oppose its protection.

The asset was preventively registered in the General Registry of Assets of Cultural Interest, with code BM0154673, and in the Registry of Assets of Cultural Interest of the Community of Madrid, with code RBIC-2025-000012. The decree now orders the final registration in both registries and in the Cultural Heritage Catalog of the Community of Madrid, with notification to the Ministry of Culture.

A Flemish oil painting from 1628-1629

The annex of the decree describes the asset with the following technical data:

• Denomination: Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos.
• Author: Peter Paul Rubens (Siegen, 1577 – Antwerp, 1640), attributed.
• School: Flemish. Period: 17th century, 1628-1629.
• Technique and material: oil on canvas, unsigned.
• Dimensions: 210 x 180 centimeters.
• Conservation status: restored in 2006.
• Ownership: private.

The work was executed during the painter’s second trip to Spain, between August 1628 and April 1629, when he resided in the Royal Alcázar of Madrid and formed a friendship with Diego Velázquez. It was commissioned by Jaime de Cárdenas y Manrique, 5th Duke of Maqueda, and was documented by Francisco Pacheco in his treatise The Art of Painting, its Antiquity and Greatness (1649). Since the end of the 17th century, the canvas has been linked to the Convent of the Incarnation of Discalced Carmelites of Boadilla del Monte, where it remains in the hands of the community of nuns. The first enlightening study on the piece corresponds to Matías Díaz Padrón, chief curator of Flemish and Dutch painting at the Prado Museum.

Conservation and intervention criteria

The 2006 restoration returned the painting to its original dimensions, after removing additions that extended it by 37 centimeters on the bottom edge and 12 centimeters on the left side, and added a new frame of pine wood gilded with mixtion. The technical inspection carried out on September 30, 2025 noted bagging due to lack of tension, blisters evidencing a loss of adhesion between the two original canvases, and a general darkening with remnants of dirt. Future interventions must be governed by the criteria of safeguarding values, respect for essential characteristics, reversibility, differentiation, and compatibility of materials, in accordance with articles 45 and 46 of Law 8/2023.

The decree bears the signature of the Councilor for Culture, Tourism and Sport, Mariano de Paco Serrano, and the President of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and is processed under file 03/14.474/26.

The protection reinforces the guardianship of an artistic heritage that the Community of Madrid considers its own from its origin: the painting is not only preserved in the region, but was created in Madrid by commission of the 17th-century court nobility. With this declaration, the canvas now has the maximum level of legal protection and a fixed intervention regime, which limits any action on a work of private ownership but of relevant historical and artistic value.

Source: Official Gazette of the Community of Madrid, no. 221, of September 16, 2026, section I.C Other Provisions, pp. 203-209 (official reference: BOCM-20260916-36).