Saint Luke the Evangelist
El Greco·1603
Historical Context
El Greco's Saint Luke the Evangelist of around 1603 depicts the physician-evangelist — patron of painters, who was credited with painting a portrait of the Virgin — with the attributes of the fourth Gospel's composition in a work that carries particular resonance for El Greco as a fellow artist working within a tradition that Luke allegedly founded. The bull of the Gospel's opening vision accompanies him, and El Greco's treatment invests the painter-evangelist with the specifically artistic combination of craft and spiritual inspiration that defined El Greco's own self-understanding.
Technical Analysis
El Greco renders the painter-evangelist with spiritual intensity and flowing drapery, using his mature Toledan palette and elongated forms to create a powerful image of artistic and spiritual vocation.
