Incredulity of Thomas

The history of the Incredulity of Thomas was first embodied in the decoration of the Malatia Gospel of 1268(1) . In the Armenian art it was the first representation of the given subject-matter(2) . Roslin's composition differs from the multitude of the same medieval representations in one essential detail: representation of a mountain as a background S. Der Nersessian was the first to mark that Incredulity of Thomas merged with the episode of appearance of Christ to the Apostles in Galilee in an exceptional fashion, and pointed that this innovation was used likewise in the illumination of the Gospel of Queen Keran of 1272(3). This was the second Armenian depiction on the theme.
In the first Roslinian depiction the Teacher takes Thomas by his right hand with an extremely expressive gesture (as if getting ready to punish him) and brings it near the wound on his side. The artist skilfully enhances the devastating wrath of Christ, spreading it all over the depiction. That is why the rocky stones of the mountain sternly hang down, imparting the scene a menacing nuance. The landscape here is imbued with the same idea as the image of Christ. However, in the Incredulity of Thomas in the Gospel of Keran of 1272, the pupil does not repeat the master's intention; his mountain does not have an emotional charge.
Roslin's work discovers a certain similarity with Eastern monuments and is not like the Byzantine specimens of this subject-matter at all. As a rule, Byzantine and Syrian masters depict Christ on the background of doors, between two groups of disciples, or Thomas stands alone, sometimes with other disciples, asymmetrically on Christ's right and left sides. The first and third compositions influenced also the masters in Western Europe.
Art historians differentiate three basic types of representing the Incredulity of Thomas. Roslin gave preference to the most uncommon, where Christ brings Thomas' hand to His wound.
In the monuments of the third type Christ brings the disciple's hand into His wound. Sometimes these monuments represent Christ holding a cross or a banner, which is encountered in Western pieces only. Roslin's Christ also holds a cross. This brings his composition closer to the miniatures in the Salzburgian Book of Pericopes of ca. 1140 at the Abbey of St. Erentrude(4) , in the Psalter of Guy de Dampierre (ca. 1270) from northern France(5) and the English Psalter Ramsay made before 1300(6) . Besides, the apostles stand on the left both in these manuscripts and Roslin version. A unique peculiarity of the composition is the unusual disposition of the closed doors. Though the doors, found only in German works of the 12th century, are on the right and left at the same time.
The examination of Toros Roslin's miniature of the Incredulity of Thomas brings to the following conclusions: a) no masters have ever combined the themes of the Incredulity of Thomas and Meeting in Galilee. Hence, Roslin's illustration occupies an exceptional place in the iconography of this subject-matter; b) the monument reflects the artist's knowledge of both Eastern and Western arts, but principles of European painting prevail; c) the choice of medieval canons in this miniature serves to the enhancement of artistic influence; d) the miniature contents show how iconographic phenomena in the art of the peoples of the Mediterranean basin and Latin West were transformed; e) Toros Roslin created an original piece, which having absorbed the iconographic entities of other monuments, still strongly differs from them, being a new achievement in the evolvement of the theme under study.