The Beatus manuscripts and certain European codices mentioned earlier often depict the beloved disciple differently from the others, seated almost in profile with his feet resting on a footstool on the right of the composition, with the witness on the left. The disciple, with a golden phylactery in his hand, points at his companion carrying a codex containing the good news in order to preach God’s word. They are separated by an element similar to the column seen previously in the image of St Mark’s angels. Inside the arch, strangely enough, is not the symbol of the eagle but a winged man with a book more fitting as a reference to St Matthew.
