Luke

One of the four evangelists. He accompanied St Paul on his missions to Greece and Rome and was said to have preached in Egypt and Greece after the death of Paul. He was described by Paul as the 'beloved physician' (Col. 4:14) though he does not feature in art in this role. He was popularly supposed to have been a painter and numerous portraits of the Virgin were once ascribed to him, without foundation. He thus became the patron saint of painters. He was believed either to have died a natural death or to have been crucified with St Andrew. Luke's attributes are a winged ox, one of the apocalyptic beasts and, especially in Counter-Reformation art, a portrait of the Virgin. His commonest inscription, on a book or scroll, is 'Fuit in diebus Herodis regis ludeae sacerdos'—'In the days of Herod king of Judaea there was a priest (named Zacharias)' (Luke 1: 5.)

1. St Luke writing his gospel. Luke, like the other evangelists, is often represented in the act of writing his gospel. The winged ox is usually to be seen. Lucas van Leyden shows him seated on the back of the ox, using its horns to make a desk.
   
   
2. St Luke painting the Virgin. A popular theme, especially with Netherlandish painters of the 15th and 16th cents., often done for the painters' Guild of St Luke. Its treatment is varied. The Virgin may be alone but usually holds the infant Christ. She sits in the painter's studio or appears to him in a vision, wrapped in clouds. He draws with a pencil, or paints with a brush and palette. Sometimes he is represented in a rather inconvenient posture, kneeling at his easel as he works.