Images: courtesy of Ángel Narro
Clavis number: ECMA 209
Other descriptors: none
Location: Colegiata de San Cosme y San Damián, Covarrubias, Burgos, Castilla y León (Spain)
Category: painting
Related literature: Acts of Thomas, Miracles of Thomas, Passion of Thomas
Featured characters and locations: Andrapolis (Sandaruk), Misdaeus, Thomas (apostle).
1. DESCRIPTION
Material: oil on panel
Size: not specified
Date and provenance: ca. 1495. Two oil-on-panel paintings by Alonso de Sedano (ca. 1465–1533) originally located in the altarpiece of the Church of Santo Tomás in Covarrubias.
2. IMAGES AND RELATION TO APOCRYPHAL LITERATURE
1. Thomas at the wedding in Andrapolis is seated at the table, presided over by the king himself, between the bride and the bridegroom. A brown dog carries in its mouth the severed hand of the cupbearer who had struck Thomas, after the man had been torn apart by a lion. The scene illustrates chapters 8–9 of the Acts of Thomas. The first two acts of the apostle (chs. 1–29), together with his martyrdom, were the most widely transmitted sections of the text in the Greek manuscript tradition. The present representation is likely inspired by the version of the Thomas narrative included in Jacobus de Voragine’s The Golden Legend.
2. Thomas is beheaded by order of a king, who should be identified as Mysdaeus, although he is depicted with the same appearance as the king in the preceding scene. An executioner, dressed in priestly attire, stands behind Thomas holding a sword. Thomas, kneeling, is shown in prayer, while at the bottom of the composition a golden statue appears to have fallen, perhaps following the same iconographic model as the cycle of Thomas at the Church of S. Croce (Sassoferrato) (ECMA 168).
3. BIBLIOGRAPHY
García Esteban, Emiliano. Colegiata de Covarrubias y su museo. León: Edilea, 2003.
Silva Maroto, Pilar. “Notas para un mejor conocimiento de la pintura burgalesa de fines del siglo XV y el primer tercio del XVI.” Pages 883–89 in La ciudad de Burgos: Actas del Congreso de Historia de Burgos. Vallodolid: Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Educación y Cultura, 1984.
4. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
“Museo-Colegiata de Covarrubias de san Cosme y san Damián.” Portal de Turismo de Castilla y León
Entry created by Ángel Narro (Universitat de València), 31 March 2026.
