Saint Paul: Right Main Tier Panel

This is Saint Paul, one of the apostles who preached about Christ after he was crucified. Paul travelled throughout Greece spreading Christ’s message and was beheaded for his faith in the first century AD in Rome.He is often shown holding a large sword; it appears black here because the silver leaf used for the blade has darkened over time. This darkening has obscured its detail but infrared reflectography shows that it has bevelled (sloped) edges and even the mark of an armourer. The saint has bare feet, expressing his simplicity and humility, but he stands upon a textile decorated with phoenixes and gilded peacock heads against fanned out tail feathers. This reflects his status as one of the most important apostles.The artist used a technique called sgraffito to achieve the richness of the textile. It involved painting over a layer of gold leaf and then scratching the paint away in places, before it was fully dry, to reveal the gold beneath. He also textured the gold leaf using a fine tool called a punch, and a technique called stippling. This helped the surface to catch candlelight in the chapel and glow, creating a dazzling effect.This is the right-hand panel of the main tier of an altarpiece showing the baptism of Christ. Saint Peter often appears alongside Saint Paul, and he is in the panel on the other side of the central scene of the baptism.