The newly recovered painting is not recorded in any known documents or literary sources relating to Masolino, nor is its provenance known prior to its appearance in a private collection in Connecticut. The size, relative thinness, format and subject matter of the panel implies that it originally was part of a larger complex. It may have been inserted into the doors of a "custodia" enclosing a work of sculpture or painting, or those of an "armadio". However, the more likely context for this painting is the median tierof a multi-stored polyptych, above the larger main panels, and below the pinnacles; given the orientation of the figure and the view from below, it was clearly on the right-hand side of the altarpiece. Masolino's newly recovered panel cannot be securely associated with any surviving or documented lost works by the artist. Part of a herefore unknown polyptych painted by the artist early in his painting career, "St. John the Evangelist" represents a significant addition to the œuvre of this important, early Renaissance master.