Saint Thomas

Entered the museum under an erroneous attribution to Murillo (1617-1682). Saint Thomas is with Democritus (Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts), one of the only paintings by Velázquez to be conserved in a French museum. Its austere composition and monochrome palette are characteristic of the painter's early works. The painting may have been part of a Apostolado (a series of paintings depicting the twelve apostles and Christ individually), but only this painting and Saint Paul (Barcelona, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya) appear to have been designed. The iconography is singular: St. Thomas is often depicted as an incredulous old man, touching Christ's wounds to be convinced of his Resurrection. Here, the youthful effigy, mouth open as he preaches, holds a book as a symbol of his role as preacher, and a spear as an allusion to his martyrdom.

This painting is an essential marker in the painter's artistic evolution, and bears witness to his many sources of inspiration. It borrows the principle of the Apostolado from El Greco (1541-1614), in a formula of youthful, vigorous portraits, without nimbus, in a realistic taste close to the art of Ribera (1591-1652) or Caravaggio (1571-1610), proposing a personal reading of the Italian painter's chiaroscuro effects. of the Italian painter's chiaroscuro effects. Although the circumstances surrounding the commission and the painting's destination remain unknown, the young Velázquez produced a fine example of counter-reformist painting, showing a simple man with his faults, a model for the pious viewer to imitate. Velázquez's approach to hagiography rejects Baroque artifice, preferring to show common men elevated to sanctity, in the raw naturalism of their simple humanity.

The work, whose legibility had been impaired by overpainting and dirty varnish, was restored in 2018 by Cinzia Pasquall thanks to the patronage of the IT&M Régions group. The painter's subtle palette and pictorial matter are now once again perceptible, and the composition has regained its homogeneity.