Saint Thomas

Around 1630, in Naples, then governed by Spanish viceroys, sets of half-length apostles were among the steadiest work a painter could get. They sold as a group, they travelled well, and a great many of them ended up in Madrid. The man here is Thomas, and the lance he grips is how we know it. Tradition has him killed with one in India, and the weapon became his sign. When the Real Museo listed the royal pictures in 1857, the clerk wrote it flatly, Saint Thomas the Apostle, he has the lance in his left hand, and gave it the number 252. The Prado owns a second Saint Thomas by Ribera, close to this one in size and dated a few years later, so that old 252, painted at the lower left, is the surest way to keep the two apart.