Recognising saints: book and sword

The Virgin, holding the infant Christ, sits on a marble throne with a luxurious material stretched across it – a cloth of honour, something often hung behind medieval royalty. Two saints stand with them, and particular symbols tell us who they are. On the Virgin’s right is Saint Peter, a key peep...

The Virgin and Christ Child stand between two saints, one from the first century, one from the thirteenth. They don't have haloes, but we can tell who they are from their appearances and traditional attributes.On the left is the first-century Saint Paul, holding a book and the sword with which he...

Saint Paul is depicted with reed pen poised, gazing at the crucified Christ for inspiration. The Greek text he is writing is from his first Epistle to the Corinthians (13: 4): ‘Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up’. His attribute,...

A bearded saint stands in a scalloped niche in this small painting. This is Saint Paul, the so-called Apostle to the Gentiles (non-Jews), holding his usual emblems of a book and a sword. Paul was a Jewish convert to Christianity. He was originally hostile to the new faith but experienced a dramat...

A bearded saint stands reading a book, his left hand resting on a sword, in this quietly contemplative picture. We know, from his dark hair and beard and from the objects he holds, that this is Saint Paul: the sword is the weapon with which he was martyred and the book represents his many writing...