The Incredulity of Saint Thomas

Doubting Thomas thrusting his finger into Christ's wound was a dramatic subject that gained popularity in Counter-Reformation art, though Cima painted this version in 1502, well before the Council of Trent. The composition at the National Gallery, London, emphasizes the intimate physical encounter between Christ and the skeptical apostle, framed by Cima's characteristic architectural backdrop. Cima da Conegliano's saint panels and altarpieces served the extensive network of churches and confraternities throughout the Veneto that required devotional images of quality and reliability. His figures of individual saints combine specific observation of physiognomy and attribute with the idealized composure appropriate to devotional subjects. Working between Conegliano and Venice across three decades, Cima became the most consistent and prolific supplier of quality devotional painting in northeastern Italy, his silvery palette and composed figure types recognizable across the region's churches as a guarantee of competent devotional art in the tradition descended from Giovanni Bellini.

Cima organizes the figures in a tight semicircle around the wound, using directional light to draw the eye to the central gesture while maintaining the serene palette typical of Venetian devotional painting.