The Apostle Simon

In January 1693 a London auction offered, as a single lot, "The Twelve Apostles, and our Saviour, by Van Dyck". Thirteen small panels, painted in Antwerp about 75 years earlier by a man not yet 20. This head of Simon is one of them. The buyer was probably Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, and the set went to Althorp, the Spencer family's house in Northamptonshire, where it stayed for close to three centuries. The Getty bought this panel in 1985, a year or so after it left the house. Simon rests his hand on a saw, the instrument he was said to have been killed with, and his head is turned so far that half the profile falls into shadow. On the back there is still a red wax seal, a griffin on one side of the arms and a dragon on the other, a crown above them and, underneath, the Spencer motto, Dieu défend le droit.