Le Martyre de saint André

Saint Andrew, one of Christ's apostles, is said to have asked to die on a cross unlike Christ's own, so he was bound to a diagonal X-shaped one, the shape now called a Saint Andrew's cross, the same saltire on Scotland's flag. Murillo painted this in 1675, near the end of a long career as Seville's leading painter, and he softened the horror. The old apostle looks up calmly as angels bring down the palm and crown of martyrdom, his pale body lit against the dark wood. At the foot of the cross, among the executioners' scattered tools, Murillo gives one of the bystanders, a Black man turning to his companion, the same careful attention and individuality he would bring to a paid portrait sitter.