Saint Luke the Evangelist

Saint Luke wrote one of the four gospels, but El Greco hands him the tool of another trade. In the book open across his hands sits a small painting, the Virgin and Child in blue and rose. By an old tradition Luke was the first ever to paint the Virgin from life, which made him the patron saint of painters, and El Greco, who had started out painting sacred icons on his native Crete, knew that trade from the inside. The canvas belongs to a full set of Christ and his apostles made for the sacristy of Toledo Cathedral in the first years of the 17th century. Look from one saint to the next and the finish varies, a sign that El Greco's workshop helped complete the series.