Apostle Saint Andrew

In the Spain of 1610, the shape this apostle carries was also a soldier's emblem. The Cross of Burgundy, a red X made of two roughly trimmed branches, flew on the battle flags of the Spanish crown. It had come into Castile about a century earlier with Philip the Handsome, Duke of Burgundy, whose duchy counted Andrew as its patron saint, and in Spanish it is also called the Cruz de San Andrés. Andrew himself was said to have been crucified at Patras, in Greece, and from the late Middle Ages painters gave his cross this slanted form. El Greco lets the two rough beams run almost corner to corner across the canvas. The apostle, in a blue tunic under a green mantle, holds them close to his chest and looks down to the left.