St. Mark

Frans Hals painted Saint Mark around 1625, one of a series of Evangelist figures produced in this period. The saints series was unusual in Hals's primarily portraiture-focused output and demonstrates his ability to deploy his characterological technique — the direct gaze, the animated pose, the immediate facial presence — in the service of religious subject matter. His Saint Mark is rendered as a specific, vigorous man rather than a devotional type, the Evangelist's face possessed of the same individualized humanity that makes Hals's portraits of his contemporaries so compelling. The tradition of depicting the Evangelists as individualized human faces rather than idealized sacred types was consistent with the naturalistic, humanizing tendencies of Dutch religious art in this period.

The evangelist's weathered face is painted with vigorous, characterful brushwork, with the broad handling of the cloak and the penetrating gaze creating an image of robust, unidealized spiritual authority.