Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, 'Saint Mark (?)', about 1500

A bearded saint stands in a stone niche. He holds a book and a pen, so he is one of the Four Evangelists, the authors of the Gospels, possibly Saint Mark: his dark curly hair and the colours of his drapery are similar to those of Saint Mark in Vivarini’s Saints Francis and Mark.

The book – finely bound in stamped blue leather with metal corners and bosses, and held shut with a clasp – represents his Gospel. His quill pen is the type used for writing with ink before the invention of pens with metal points. They were usually made from the flight feathers of geese; contrary to the popular image they would have been stripped of the barbs, leaving just the hollow shaft of the feather, as here.

Although a saint, this figure has no halo or attribute; he looks more like a Roman philosopher. The quiet stone, the saint’s abstracted and unfocused gaze, and the calm morning light make him seem far removed from the cares of this world.

This is one of two panels featuring evangelists from a triptych or polyptych, painted probably in around 1500 by Cima da Conegliano. Another panel from the altarpiece, Saint Sebastian is also in our collection.

Through skilful modelling and use of shadow, Cima has made the figure look more like a sculpture than a flat, painted image. The richly contrasting colours of the saint’s draperies and the brilliant light which falls on him from the right, casting shadows on the stone behind, are characteristic of Cima’s style (you can see both in The Incredulity of Saint Thomas). The head of this saint was clearly based on the model Cima used previously for Saint Thomas in that picture.