Martyrdom of Saint Thomas (Rubens)

Jan Svitavsky commissioned The Martyrdom of Saint Thomas alongside Saint Augustine at the seashore for the altar in the church.^[2] Svitavsky commissioned both of these paintings serving his last period of office as the prior of Prague's Augustinian monastery.^[1] Rubens was paid 945 guilders for this commission.^[2]

Rubens, never traveling to India himself, used a variety of influences and stories to create this painting. It is thought that Rubens used the story of Saint Thomas from the Legenda Aurea, or Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine.^[1][2] Rubens also used the accounts of India and Asia in the book India Orientalis by brothers Theodor and Israel De Bry to guide his understanding of what the other figures and Asia might look like.^[2] In the background, we can see a coconut and areca palm tree, which was meant to indicate the oriental context to this painting.^[2] The Christian Paradise is said to be flanked with palm trees, making palms are a symbol of enteral life in Christian belief. Here, Rubens uses the palms as a symbol of Saint Thomas's eternal life that succeed martyrdom.^[2]

According to Pedro de Ribadeneyra's Flos Sanctorum, Saint Thomas wore an old cloak and dressed like a poor man.^[1][2] He was also described to have "incompta caesarie" and "vilis, despectus, inops"; uncombed hair with a common, unsightly, and impoverished look.^[1][3] Uncommon to the time in which Thomas lived, he was depicted barefoot with unusual dress for an Apostle, wearing a cowl similar to the ones worn by mendicant friars.^[1] To make Thomas appear as a member of the Augustinian order in Prague, Rubens decided to dress the Apostle similarly, with bare feet.^[1] The purpose of doing so was to generate feelings in the Augustinian observers to view Saint Thomas as a model and serve their faith better because his martyrdom.^[1] The posture of the dying Apostle is similar to that of dying Laocoön.^[1][2] The sculpture was widely known by sixteenth and seventeenth century artists because of its example of grief and agony and was held in a high regard.^[2] During his stay in Rome, Rubens had drawn several perspectives of the sculpture to use it for future references, such as this painting.^[2]

For the Indian figures, Rubens used the book India Orientalis to guide his portrayal.^[2] In the book, Indian Brahmins are described to be in the same shape and proportion of the Europeans, with their only difference being religion and skin tone.^[2][5] They are also describe to walk around almost nude, with cloth covering the groin area and turbans on their heads.^[2][5] Rubens depicted the Brahmins very closely to how they are described in this book, with almost nude muscular shapes and cloth coverings.

One of the most notable pieces of this painting is the use of architecture to support the story origins. Rubens painted twisted columns, a highly symbolic value in Christian art, but paired it with a pagan idol and elephant heads. The purpose was to display the location of Thomas's martyrdom while connecting Roman architecture similar to that which the Apostle might have produced.^[2] The elephant heads are not only a symbol of India but a symbol of Thomas's legend.^[2] Rubens references Pedro de Ribadeneyra's Flos Sanctorum again, in which there is a story of Saint Thomas moving a large tree singlehandedly when several elephants could not.^[2] For the idol at the top of the column, Rubens referenced Imagini delli dei de gl'antichi, a sixteenth century book detailing the images of the gods of antiquity.^[2] Rubens then added animal-like feet, two horns, and a tail to the idol.^[2] The purpose of presenting the idol this was to relay the message that anything against the Christian religion is work of the devil, conveyed through the devil-like figure.^[2]