Saint Thomas

This compelling portrayal was created by one of the outstanding printmakers active in the Netherlands during the last quarter of the fifteenth century. Master FVB's realistic rendering and psychologically penetrating depiction of subjects, supremely evident in this introspective saint gazing off in contemplation, distinguish his work from that of his Late Gothic contemporaries. The artist's actual identity remains unknown; the name bestowed upon him by scholars derives from the monogram he engraved at the bottom of his prints.

The apostle Thomas, patron saint of builders and architects, holds his identifying attribute, an architect's square. His association with architects arose from a fourth-century apocryphal romance, the Acts of Thomas, in which Thomas was ordered to design and build a palace for an Indian king. Thomas converted the king's subjects to Christianity and ultimately converted the king himself.

Credit: Purchase, Rogers Fund, Barbara and Howard Fox Gift, and A. Hyatt Mayor Purchase Fund, Marjorie Phelps Starr Bequest, 2004