03 — ARTWORK
Apostle St Paul
- MEDIUM
- Oil on canvas, 97 x 77 cm
- TYPE
- Religious
PALETTE
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- FILE
- 950 × 1174 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
Although not one of the original twelve whom Christ chose to be his closest followers, Paul became the 'Apostles of the Gentiles' following his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus, founding Christian communities in many places, including Crete. He appears in all of El Greco's Apostolados, in place of St Matthias, the Apostleone of the twelve disciples of Jesus, chosen personally by him from amongst his large crowd of followers in order to continue his work and preach the gospels. chosen after Christ's ascension to replace Judas.
In this painting El Greco shows St Paul with a sword, the instrument of his martyrdomthe sufferings, torture and death inflicted on a person on account of his faith or convictions., and a letter inscribed in cursive Greek "To Titus, ordained first bishop of the church of the Cretans'.
St Paul appears a great number of times in El Greco's oeuvreThe complete body of works created by an artist. and he is depicted with remarkable consistency. The saint is always shown slightly balding, with dark hair and beard, wearing a red mantleAn overcoat, worn open, popular during the second half of the 15th century and the 16th century and often lined with fur along the hem and around the collar. It reached to the knee or foot, depending on the social class of the wearer. thrown over a blue or green tunic.
An earlier version of this composition from about 1604 is in the City Art Museum, St Louis.
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r9cb6ccac0f999a,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Apostle St Paul by GRECO, El},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-09},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/greco-el-r8ef3afacca162f/apostle-st-paul-r9cb6ccac0f999a},
urldate = {2026-09-09},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-09. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
