Description
School of ‘EL GRECO’; DOMENIKOS THEOTOKOPOULOS (Candia, Greece, 1541 - Toledo, 1614). ‘Saint Andrew. Oil on canvas. It has perforation. Measurements: 61,5 x 48 cm. This devotional image of Saint Andrew depicts the saint with the attribute of his martyrdom, the cross on which he was tied by order of the proconsul Aegeas. The tenebrousness of the work, the predominance of shimmering blue and ochre tones, as well as the excessive anatomical elongation of the figure, are features that remind us of the painting of El Greco. Andrew was the first apostle called by Jesus, which is why the Greeks called him Protokletos, ‘the first called’. Brother of Simon Peter and, like him, a fisherman from Galilee, his name is Greek and not Hebrew, and means virile. He is mentioned twice in the Gospels: in connection with the vocations of the first two apostles, and in the episode of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. His legend comes from the Apocryphal Acts, according to which he was appointed, after the death of Jesus, to evangelise Scythia, i.e. modern-day Russia. While preaching there, an angel appeared to him and said ‘Go to Matthew’; he was then miraculously guided to Ethiopia, where St Matthew had been blinded and imprisoned. The prison doors opened before Andrew, and he began to pray in front of Matthew, after which the prisoner regained his sight. Having accomplished his mission, he went to Greece and then to Asia Minor, where he is said to have performed a series of miracles. He finally met his death in Patras, in the Peloponnese, where the proconsul Aegeas had him flogged with rods for preaching disobedience to the emperor, and then ordered him to be tied with ropes to a cross in the shape of an ‘X’, where he died on the third day. The most popular attribute of Saint Andrew is precisely this cross, although until the 15th century he is most often depicted crucified on a normal cross. Sometimes a net full of fish is used as a second attribute, since he was adopted as the patron saint of freshwater fishermen, fishmongers and rope-makers who provided the fishermen with rope for their nets. In time he also became the patron saint of Greece and Russia.
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School of ‘EL GRECO’; DOMENIKOS THEOTOKOPOULOS (Candia, Greece, 1541 - Toledo, 1614). ‘Saint Andrew. Oil on canvas. It has perforation. Measurements: 61,5 x 48 cm. This devotional image of Saint Andrew depicts the saint with the attribute of his martyrdom, the cross on which he was tied by order of the proconsul Aegeas. The tenebrousness of the work, the predominance of shimmering blue and ochre tones, as well as the excessive anatomical elongation of the figure, are features that remind us of the painting of El Greco. Andrew was the first apostle called by Jesus, which is why the Greeks called him Protokletos, ‘the first called’. Brother of Simon Peter and, like him, a fisherman from Galilee, his name is Greek and not Hebrew, and means virile. He is mentioned twice in the Gospels: in connection with the vocations of the first two apostles, and in the episode of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. His legend comes from the Apocryphal Acts, according to which he was appointed, after the death of Jesus, to evangelise Scythia, i.e. modern-day Russia. While preaching there, an angel appeared to him and said ‘Go to Matthew’; he was then miraculously guided to Ethiopia, where St Matthew had been blinded and imprisoned. The prison doors opened before Andrew, and he began to pray in front of Matthew, after which the prisoner regained his sight. Having accomplished his mission, he went to Greece and then to Asia Minor, where he is said to have performed a series of miracles. He finally met his death in Patras, in the Peloponnese, where the proconsul Aegeas had him flogged with rods for preaching disobedience to the emperor, and then ordered him to be tied with ropes to a cross in the shape of an ‘X’, where he died on the third day. The most popular attribute of Saint Andrew is precisely this cross, although until the 15th century he is most often depicted crucified on a normal cross. Sometimes a net full of fish is used as a second attribute, since he was adopted as the patron saint of freshwater fishermen, fishmongers and rope-makers who provided the fishermen with rope for their nets. In time he also became the patron saint of Greece and Russia.
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