Saint Judas Thaddeus

Simone Martini painted this panel of Saint Judas Thaddeus around 1315, likely as part of a multi-panel apostle series for a polyptych altarpiece. Thaddeus, often conflated with the apostle Jude, was invoked as the patron of desperate causes and lost situations in medieval devotion. Martini's courtly Gothic style, characterized by elegant linearity and luminous color, made him the most internationally influential Sienese painter of the fourteenth century.

Painted in egg tempera on panel with tooled gold ground, the saint is rendered with Martini's characteristic refined contour lines and subtle chromatic modulations. The elongated figure and graceful pose exemplify the aristocratic elegance that distinguished Sienese from Florentine Gothic painting.