The Incredulity of Saint Thomas

On 28 May 1497 a confraternity in Portogruaro, a town on the Venetian mainland, voted to order this altarpiece for its altar in the church of San Francesco. The brotherhood ran four hospitals, and its patron was Thomas, the apostle who would not believe in the Resurrection until he had touched the wound. Cima shows that moment under a coffered ceiling, the apostles crowded close around Christ. John the Evangelist, in blue, stands at his side, and the balding Peter on the other. The job dragged on. Payments began in 1502, and in 1504, the year on the little painted label near the bottom, Cima held the picture back unfinished because he had not been paid. It went up that year with more than half the fee still owing, and he had to go to law, collecting the last of it only in 1509.