page_title: Doubting Thomas
section_title: Art
hierarchical_section_title: Doubting Thomas / Art
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Diptychon: Moses empfängt die Gesetzestafeln und Der ungläubige Thomas; Trier Ende 10. Jh., Elfenbein. Skulpturensammlung (Inv. 8505/8506, erworben 1935), Bode-Museum Berlin. English: Diptych: Moses receiving the Ten Commandments and The Doubting Thomas; Trier, end of 10th century, ivory. Skulpturensammlung (inv. nos. 8505/8506, acquired in 1935), Bode-Museum Berlin.
context_page_description: A doubting Thomas is a skeptic who refuses to believe without direct personal experience—a reference to the Apostle Thomas, who refused to believe that the resurrected Jesus had appeared to the ten other apostles, until he could see and feel the wounds received by Jesus on the cross.
  In art, the episode has been frequently depicted since at least the 5th century, with its depiction reflecting a range of theological interpretations.
context_section_description: In art this subject, formally termed The Incredulity of Saint Thomas, has been common since at least the early 6th century, when it appears in the mosaics at Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, and on the Monza ampullae.  In those depictions, as later in the Baroque, the subject, normally depicted at the moment Thomas puts his fingers into Jesus' side, was used to emphasize the importance of physical experiences and evidences for the believer, as described above.  The Ravenna mosaic introduces the motif of Jesus raising his hand high to reveal the wound in his side; his pose often, but not always, is such that the wounds on his hands can also be seen, and often those on his feet as well. 
  The scene was used in a number of contexts in medieval art, including Byzantine icons. Where there was room all the apostles were often shown, and sometimes Thomas' acceptance of the Resurrection is shown, with Thomas kneeling and Jesus blessing him.  This iconography leaves it unclear whether the moment shown follows an examination or not, but probably suggests that it does not, especially in Protestant art.  From the late Middle Ages onwards a number of variations of the poses of the two figures occur (see gallery). The typical "touching" representation formed one of a number of scenes sometimes placed around a central Crucifixion of Jesus, and is one of the scenes shown on the Irish Muiredach's High Cross, and the subject of a large relief in the famous Romanesque sculpted cloister at the Abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos.  In works showing pairs of typologically related scenes from the Old and New Testaments it could be paired with Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, but in a 10th-century Ottonian ivory diptych it is paired with Moses receiving the Law, comparing both the two Biblical Testaments and the support for the faith from both textual "sacred writ" and physical evidences.
  In the later Middle Ages Jesus with one side of his robe pulled back, displaying the wound in his side and his other four wounds (called the ostentatio vulnerum), was taken from images with Thomas and turned into a pose adopted by Jesus alone, who often places his own fingers into the wound in his side.  This form became a common feature of single iconic figures of Jesus and subjects such as the Last Judgement (where Bamberg Cathedral has an early example of about 1235), Christ in Majesty, the Man of Sorrows and Christ with the Arma Christi, and was used to emphasize Christ's suffering as well as the fact of his Resurrection.
  In the Renaissance the famous sculpted pair of Christ and St. Thomas by Andrea del Verrocchio (1467–1483) for the Orsanmichele in Florence is the best known representation; the subject is rare in free-standing sculpture. This guild church also housed commercial tribunals, and the presentation of physical evidence gave the subject a particular relevance to courts and justice, and it appeared on many other buildings in Tuscany with judicial functions.  The Medici family, heavily involved in the commission, also had a particular association with St Thomas,  though the painting by Salviati seems to reflect anti-Medici feeling in the 1540s.  
  The subject enjoyed a revival in popularity in Counter-Reformation art as an assertion of Catholic doctrine against Protestant rejection of the Catholic practices which the episode was held to support, and Protestant belief in "faith alone".  In the Catholic interpretation, although Jesus asserts the superiority of those who have faith without physical evidence, he was nonetheless willing to show Thomas his wound, and let him feel it.  The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Caravaggio (c. 1601–1602) is now the most famous depiction (unusually showing Thomas to the viewer's right of Jesus), but there are many others, especially by the Utrecht Caravaggisti, painting in a Protestant environment, such as the Flemish Caravaggist Matthias Stom, whose two versions of the subject are now in Madrid and Bergamo.  Both Rembrandt (Pushkin Museum) and Rubens (centrepiece of the Rockox Triptych, Royal Museum of Fine
caption: Ottonian ivory diptych
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