L'apôtre saint Matthieu

El Greco was approaching 70 when this set of apostles was begun in his Toledo workshop. A full apostolado, 12 apostles and a Christ, was a Spanish speciality, ordered by cathedrals, sacristies and private chapels, and a studio that had already worked each saint out could supply another set without starting over. Matthew is given the book and the pen, since he is counted among the evangelists. Work on this set stopped at different points for different panels, and Matthew is one of those left early, the paint still thin and rapid rather than brought to a finish. El Greco died in Toledo in 1614. The series now hangs a few streets from where he had his house, in a museum put together in the early 1900s by a Spanish collector who wanted the city to have a Greco house again.