In Christian tradition, the Four Evangelists are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the authors attributed with the creation of the four canonical Gospel accounts. In the New Testament, they bear the following titles: the Gospel of Matthew; the Gospel of Mark; the Gospel of Luke; and the Gospel of John. These names were assigned to the works by the early church fathers in the 2nd century AD; none of the writers signed their work.
Jacob Jordaens, The Four Evangelists, 1625–1630.
The four winged creatures that symbolize the Four Evangelists surround Christ in Majesty on the Romanesque tympanum of the Church of St. Trophime in Arles.
The lion symbol of St. Mark from the Echternach Gospels, here without wings. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
The symbols of the four Evangelists are here depicted in the Book of Kells. The four winged creatures symbolize, top to bottom, left to right: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Matthew the Apostle is named in the New Testament as one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. According to Christian traditions, he was also one of the four Evangelists as author of the Gospel of Matthew, and thus is also known as Matthew the Evangelist.
Saint Matthew (c. 1611) by Peter Paul Rubens
Matthew in a painted miniature from a volume of Armenian Gospels dated 1609, held by the Bodleian Library
Saint Matthew and the Angel (1661) by Rembrandt
Saint Matthew (1713–1715) by Camillo Rusconi, Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in Rome
