Doubting Thomas by Sebastián López de Arteaga

Doubting Thomas by Sebastián López de Arteaga (c. 1645–46)

Put in thy finger hither

Thomas was not with the other disciples when the risen Christ first appeared to them, and he refused to believe their report: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." Eight days later Christ came again, the doors being shut, and said to him, "Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing." Thomas answered, "My Lord, and my God" (John 20:24–29, Douay-Rheims).

Arteaga paints the moment of contact. Christ stands at the centre, bare to the waist, with a red cloak wrapped round his hips and falling over one arm. With his right hand he takes Thomas's hand and guides the finger to the wound in his side, where the exposed, bleeding flesh is picked out in intense red. Thomas, at the left, is seen half from behind in an ochre robe and a green mantle, leaning in with his face turned up to Christ's.

Faces in the dark

The other apostles crowd round in the shadows: heads with grey hair and lined faces, some astonished, some devout, some peering over the shoulders of others. The background is almost black. The light seems to come from Christ's own body, and the Museo Nacional de Arte draws attention to the careful drawing of his torso and to the strong contrasts of light and dark, the tenebrism, that dominate the canvas. X-rays show that Arteaga repainted Christ's head in a second campaign, changing its proportions.

At the lower left is the signature, in which Arteaga describes himself as notary of the Holy Office: SS. de Arteaga notario Del Sto offo inventor. pinx. By adding inventor, the UNAM researchers note, he presented himself as a learned artist, the author of the design as well as its painter. In the centre of the lower edge an inscription in red letters records who paid: Hízose de los bienes de el Capn Franco de Aguirre, "made from the goods of Captain Francisco de Aguirre".

Seville to Mexico City

Arteaga was born in Seville in 1610, passed his master's examination in the Seville painters' guild in 1630 and ran his own workshop there until 1638. In 1640 he sailed for New Spain, where he introduced the naturalistic style, with strong contrasts of light and shade, and became a notary of the tribunal of the Inquisition. He died in the city in 1652.

The canvas is not dated. Researchers at the Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas of the National Autonomous University of Mexico have found, in archival documents not yet published, that it was contracted in December 1645, so it must have been finished early in 1646. The museum itself dates it 1645–46.

San Agustín to the MUNAL

The painting was made for the convent of San Agustín in Mexico City. In the nineteenth century it hung in the presbytery of the church of San Agustín, above the sacristy door, facing a Supper at Emmaus by Francisco de Zurbarán. After the Reform Laws of 1859 it was gathered with other church property at the convent of La Encarnación, and around 1861 it went to the galleries of old paintings at the Academy of San Carlos. In 1964 it moved to the new Pinacoteca Virreinal de San Diego, and in 2000 that collection passed to the Museo Nacional de Arte. The canvas measures 223.5 by 156 centimetres.

About this print

Made from a photograph of the whole canvas, in its tall format, with the signature at the lower left and the patron's inscription at the foot.

Sources: Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City (via Google Arts & Culture) · Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, UNAM, Sebastián de Arteaga · Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia (Spanish), "Sebastián López de Arteaga" · John 20:24–29 (Douay-Rheims)