Description
This small gold-ground panel portrays Saint Andrew the Apostle. An inscription identifies him, while a pale-covered book and an ornamented upright cross distinguish the figure. His grey hair and beard reveal the close attention to expression found in works associated with Simone Martini.
Painted around 1317–1319 by the Sienese master’s workshop, the panel once belonged to a group of apostles from a now-dismembered altarpiece. It is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, accession number 43.98.12.
Andrew's cross is a useful reminder that religious attributes changed over time. Many modern viewers associate him almost exclusively with an X-shaped cross, yet this painting presents a straight cross with a horizontal bar. There is no reason to treat that difference as an error: it documents the variety of medieval visual conventions.






