St. Paul (Primary Title)
Jacob Jordaens, Flemish, 1593 - 1678 (Artist)
Starting in the early 1620s, Jordaens painted a number of saints in a half-length format, probably for sale singly or in pairs for use in small chapels and private devotion. The practice of using paintings as devotional aids was still used in the Catholic Southern Netherlands though they had been abandoned in the Protestant North.
Saul of Tarsus, a diligent persecutor of Christians, underwent a spectacular conversion, changed his name to Paul, and became a Christian missionary to the Gentiles. The symbols that identify him here are the sword with which he was executed and a book, which stands for his learning and his authorship of the Epistles.
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