Full title | Saints Andrew and Thomas |
---|---|
Artist | Gian Lorenzo Bernini |
Artist dates | 1598 - 1680 |
Series | Four Saints for Palazzo Barberini |
Date made | before 1627 |
Medium and support | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 61.5 x 78.1 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1967 |
Inventory number | NG6381 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
Gian Lorenzo Bernini was one of the most successful sculptors and architects of seventeenth-century Rome. This image of Saints Andrew and Thomas is an early work and one of the few paintings he made. Saint Andrew, a fisherman, is identified by the fish and the book (probably a reference to the Acts of Andrew, an apocryphal text written by him). Saint Thomas, a carpenter, is identified by the set square clasped in his right hand.
The two saints, both apostles, were friends and contemporaries, but Bernini was not trying to depict a particular discussion that they were known to have had. Instead he has created a contrast between age and youth, teacher and student. Andrew, balding and grey-haired, points to a passage in his book and turns to explain it to the youthful, animated Thomas, who looks on intensely as understanding begins to dawn on his face. A painting by Andrea Sacchi, Bernini’s contemporary, also depicts two saints and has a similar format and dimensions; it is also in the National Gallery’s collection.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini was one of the most successful and influential creative figures of seventeenth-century Rome. He was multi talented – a brilliant sculptor and also responsible for town-planning schemes, the design of the fountain in the middle of Piazza Navona and the construction and remodelling of several of the city’s churches, including the great colonnade in front of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. He made few paintings, however; this image of Saints Andrew and Thomas is a rarity and also his earliest documented picture.
He has created an intensely atmospheric scene. It owes much to the dramatic lighting and close-cropped framing that had been pioneered in Rome by Caravaggio a couple of decades earlier, which was still highly fashionable in the 1620s. It is a technique which makes the figures seem more immediate and closer to the viewer. Bernini enhances the effect here with the highlights on the pointing finger, which make it seem to protrude forward out of the picture space, and also the dead fish which lies on a ledge in the foreground of the painting.
The fish might seem a strange addition to the scene, but it is a conventional way of identifying Saint Andrew, who was a fisherman. The book he is reading is also a traditional attribute, probably a reference to the Acts of Andrew, an apocryphal text written about him. The other saint is Thomas, identifiable by the set square clasped in his right hand. This alludes to his profession as a carpenter and to an episode in the Acts of Thomas, also apocryphal, in which he is described as being summoned to build a palace for a king in India.
The two saints were both apostles, two of the twelve disciples who were the earliest followers of Christ. Andrew and Thomas were contemporaries and friends, but Bernini was not trying to depict a particular event or discussion that they were known to have had. Instead he has created a contrast between age and youth, teacher and student. Andrew, balding and grey-haired, points to a passage in his book and turns to explain it to the youthful, animated Thomas, who looks on intensely as understanding begins to dawn on his face.
This painting is listed in an inventory of the Barberini collection in Rome, dated 1 June 1627 (though probably drawn up a few years earlier). Bernini’s most important patron was Maffeo Barberini, who became Pope Urban VIII in 1623. Indeed, Bernini himself oversaw the building of the Palazzo Barberini from 1629 until its completion in 1633. However, it’s not clear if this painting was a commissioned work or if it was simply acquired by or presented to the Barberini family by the artist.
An argument has been made that the painting may be a companion to another picture of two saints by Andrea Sacchi, also in the National Gallery collection. However, the precise relationship between the two is uncertain.
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Four Saints for Palazzo Barberini
These paintings were made by two rising stars of the art world in Rome in the 1620s – one by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the other by Andrea Sacchi. Both depict two saints at half-length, tightly framed and dramatically lit. They are almost exactly the same size, seem to have been made at around the same date and were in the collection of the powerful Barberini family.
It has been suggested that they were made as companion pieces, but documents suggest that the Sacchi painting wasn’t acquired by the Barberini until 1661 at the earliest, more than 30 years after they bought Bernini’s picture. Close examination has also shown that the Bernini painting was trimmed along both vertical sides after it was finished while the Sacchi was extended slightly, presumably so that the sizes of the two would match. On balance, it seems unlikely that they were originally made as a pair. Instead, the similarities seem to have tempted the Barberini family to adapt the pictures and hang them together at a later date.
These paintings were made by two rising stars of the art world in Rome in the 1620s – one is by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the other, Andrea Sacchi – who shared the same powerful patron, Maffeo Barberini (Pope Urban VIII). There are clear similarities between the pictures. Both depict two saints at half-length, one positioned slightly behind the other. The compositions are tightly framed and dramatically lit, and use the same palette of earth and flesh tones offset by a black background.
There are interesting contrasts too. Bernini’s pair of saints are the apostles Andrew and Thomas, who were among the first disciples of Christ. They knew each other well and are shown engaged in a discussion over a religious text. Sacchi’s pair are Saints Anthony Abbot and Francis of Assisi, who were from later ages and lived at different times. Both were strongly associated with monasticism and lived simple, reflective lives without possessions or worldly encumbrances. In Sacchi’s painting they share the same pictorial space but are unaware of each other, lost in their own separate devotional worlds.
Given these similarities and contrasts, and since both pictures are almost exactly the same size and seem to have been made at around the same date, it has been suggested that they were painted as companion pieces. Perhaps there is some religious significance to the pairings, or maybe they were commissioned as a way of pitting Bernini and Sacchi against one another in order to generate an artistic debate. It is also possible that the pictures were not simply a pendant pair, but part of an unfinished, or lost, series of saints.
At first sight, the fact that the Bernini painting was recorded in a Barberini inventory of 1627 and that payment for a Sacchi painting of ‘two heads of Apostles’ was made two weeks later by Cardinal Franceso Bernini (Maffeo’s nephew) seems to add weight to this theory. However, this painting by Sacchi doesn‘t depict two apostles, and while it’s conceivable that whoever made the 1627 record may have misidentified Saint Anthony, it’s highly unlikely that he would have failed to recognise Saint Francis, who would never have been described as an apostle. Francis was one of the most famous and revered saints, and his highly distinctive attribute – a stigmata wound – is clearly displayed in this picture. Apostles were also never depicted wearing monk’s habits, as these two saints are. It seems much more likely that the 1627 record references a different work altogether, while this painting is almost certainly the one of Saints Francis and Anthony that is recorded in an inventory of the contents of Sacchi’s house made after his death in 1661. So it seems that the Barberini family didn’t acquire Sacchi’s painting until more than 30 years after they bought Bernini’s one. In fact, the first time they are indisputably documented together is even later – in 1692, when they were both in the collection of Cardinal Carlo Barberini.
The matching size of the two paintings also seems to be misleading. Close examination has shown that the Bernini was trimmed along both vertical sides after it was finished and that Sacchi’s painting was extended slightly, So, on balance, it seems unlikely that the two paintings were originally made as a pair. It is certainly possible that one artist was influenced by the other’s work, and the similarities and contrasts between them seem to have tempted the Barberini family to adapt and hang them together at a later date.

