Based on the technique and style, this drawing and the eleven others that follow (inv. nos. 38553-38563, cat. nos. 72-82) have been convincingly attributed by most scholars to Francisco de Herrera the Elder. Only Jonathan Brown (1973) argued for an attribution to the elder's son, Francisco de Herrera the Younger, while the catalogue of the 1980 Madrid exhibition suggested the father's school.[1]
Since 1868, Córdoba's Museo de Bellas Artes has owned a collection of paintings of apostles from the former Convent of Santa Clara in Priego (Córdoba)[2] that were previously attributed to Juan Luis Zambrano (15981639). Four of those pictures were cleaned in 2005, revealing a quality typical of paintings by Herrera the Elder. Moreover, some of them are directly related to drawings of apostles from the Hamburg series.[3]
There are other known drawings in several museums and collections with very similar appearances and technique. In addition to their type and size, they also share the fact that they are very closely cropped, and were probably drawn close to each other on larger sheets of paper. One sheet in the Musée du Louvre, the only known double portrait, confirms that assumption: placed close together, the two figures appear to be in communication; however, in the lower “transition area” one clearly sees that they, too, occupy separate spaces and should be considered as separate studies.[4]
As Benito Navarrete Prieto and Alfonso Pérez Sánchez have pointed out, he figures from this series, all of which are depicted half-length, generally lack specific attributes and have generic features. Therefore, while usually referred to as apostles, they are actually depictions of polyvalent male figures Chat could serve as saints, prophets, or apostles in different compositions as needed.[5] Still, the fact that the group in Hamburg consists of twelve drawings suggests that they could be considered a complete apostolate. In this drawing, he only figure that can be unmistakably identified is Jude Thaddeus, thanks to his halberd.
In Echeverría's inventory, Herrera is listed under numbers 54 to 57 of the Escuela Española. Because of their smaller formats, it is conceivable that he apostles were mounted four to a page, and that accordingly all four were listed under a single number.

Jens Hoffmann-Samland


1 Brown erroneously suggested a possible provenance from Frank Hall Standish (1842–1852) for this group of drawings. Pérez Sánchez (dir.) 1980, 73ff.
2 Inventory nos. CE2101P, CE2107P, and CE2334P to CE2338P, CE236P and CE2361P, all of which are oil on canvas and with almost exactly the same dimensions.
3 Pérez Sánchez and Navarrete Prieto (1996a, 365-87) discussed this series and its ties to the Hamburg drawings. See also Pérez Sánchez and Navarrete Prieto (dirs.) 2005, 140.
4 Two Apostles or Two Saints, 6 1/8 x 8 1/2 in. (157 x 217 mm), Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. RF 43246. See Angulo Iñiguez and Pérez Sánchez 1985, 21, no. 26, illus. pl. VIII. The Louvre preserves three additional sheets that are individual depictions of apostles or saints, like the Hamburg drawings, in the same technique and identical in size (inv. nos. RF 43247, RF 43248, RF 43249). Other sheets comparable to these are: An Apostle, 6 1/8 x 4 1/4 in. (156 x 108 mm), Ottawa, National Gallery of Canada, inv. no. 17116 (See Angulo Iñiguez and Pérez Sánchez 1985, no. 23, illus. pl. VII; and McKim Smith 1974, 43–44, no. 21. McKim Smith retains the traditional attribution to Herrera the Elder, despite Brown's then recent attribution to Herrera the Younger, “until further studies (make it possible to distinguish between their hands."); and Male Saint with Staff (attributed to Herrera the Younger), 6 x 4 1/2 in. (154 x 114 mm), New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 1975.131.220 (see Angulo Iñiguez and Pérez Sánchez 1985, 21, no. 22, illus. pl. VII). In 1999 and 2004, Christie's in London auctioned “A saint in profile to the left, half length, raising his left hand," lot 6148 of July 6, 1999, and “A man in a cloak, half length, gesturing to the right," lot 6926 of July 6, 2004.
5 Pérez Sánchez (dir.) 1995, 120.

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