The Evangelist Saint Luke 1610 - 1615

Joachim Wtewael painted The Evangelist Saint Luke with oil on panel in the Dutch Republic. The image represents the Biblical author, hard at work, quill in hand. Wtewael was a Dutch Mannerist painter. Mannerism was popular in the late Renaissance. It was a self-consciously sophisticated style which prized artificiality and elegance over the more naturalistic style that came before. The institutions of art making were changing at this time, the old apprentice model was giving way to academies that taught artistic principles. As a mannerist, Wtewael, was associated with the Haarlem Academy, which was founded in 1583. As a learned society the academy served to make art more intellectual and less practical. Art history helps us to contextualize this painting, telling us about the artist's influences, the place of the work within the artist's oeuvre, and how it might have been viewed by its original audience. These research resources allow us to see art as a product of its time, shaped by the social and institutional forces that surround it.