St. Luke

El Greco's Saint Luke from around 1605-1610, now in Indianapolis, depicts the evangelist who, by tradition, was himself a painter and who painted the first portrait of the Virgin Mary. Luke was consequently the patron saint of painters and painters' guilds throughout Europe, and El Greco's depiction of the artist-evangelist carries special significance as a statement about the spiritual nature of his own artistic vocation. El Greco depicts Luke with an open gospel book and the attributes of his art — brush or pen — his face illuminated with the visionary intensity that characterizes all El Greco's late saint figures. The work belongs to the apostle series that occupied El Greco in his final decade, each figure a meditation on the transmission of divine truth through human testimony.

The painting demonstrates El Greco's late style with its elongated proportions and visionary quality. The saint's contemplative expression and the warm palette of earth tones create an atmosphere of quiet intellectual engagement.