San Bartolomé
Francisco Herrera the Elder, 1630
Saint Bartholomew is an oil on canvas by Francisco de Herrera the Elder, dated to around 1630 and associated with the Seville school. The apostle is shown in three-quarter profile, his gaze turned toward his right. He rests his arm on a book set on its edge, a common attribute of the apostles as a sign of their preaching. The most striking detail, however, is the large knife he holds in that same hand, a direct reference to his martyrdom, since tradition holds that he was flayed alive. The canvas came from the convent of Santa Clara in Priego de Córdoba and belongs to a group known as the Apostolado of Herrera the Elder. After the 1868 disentailment it passed to the Museum of Fine Arts of Córdoba, where it is now kept. A restoration in 2006 prompted a review of its authorship: it was first attributed to Juan Luis Zambrano, but comparison with the painter's drawings in the Kunsthalle in Hamburg supported the attribution to Herrera the Elder.
- Painter
- Francisco Herrera the Elder
- Date
- 1630
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 114 × 89 cm
- Museum
- Museum of Fine Arts of Córdoba, Córdoba
- Movement
- Escuela sevillana de pintura
- Genre
- religious art
- Depicts
- Bartholomew the Apostle, book
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