Apostles 1473

This panel showing an apostle was created by Carlo Crivelli, likely in the second half of the 15th century, using tempera on wood. The materiality of this work is striking. Tempera, made from pigment mixed with egg yolk, gives the painting a matte finish and allows for meticulous detail, as seen in the apostle’s hair and hands. The gilded halo, applied with immense patience, shimmers and refracts light, emphasizing the figure’s divinity. But more than that, it is a symbol of the labour involved, the sheer cost of production, with gold leaf applied over a carefully built-up surface of gesso. Crivelli was clearly a master craftsman, trained to perfection, but in the end the value we see in the painting, then as now, derives less from the artistry itself, and more from the costly materials. This reminds us that even the most spiritual art is always caught up in the material world.