Jude the Apostle

For a long time nobody in the Spanish royal collection was quite sure which apostle this was. When the canvas hung in the Palacio Real in Madrid it was one of three half-length figures listed together, each described only by what he carried. The inventory drawn up in 1834, after the death of Ferdinand VII, calls him Saint Simon. By 1857 the museum had written him down as Saint Thomas, noting the lance in his hand. Today the Prado calls him Saint Jude Thaddeus, and reads the long staff with its iron head as a halberd, the weapon tradition gives him. Everything turns on that one object. The numbers painted in the lower corners, 487 at the left and 145 at the right, are what is left of those older catalogues. The museum attributes the picture to Jusepe de Ribera rather than giving it to him outright, and dates it no closer than the 17th century.