St Paul
by ASPETTI, Tiziano, Silver, partially gilded, height 53 cm
The bronze statuettes attributed to Aspetti vary widely in style and quality. No signed statuette exists. Silver figures of St Peter and its pendant St Paul (both Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam) may well be the pieces referred to by the artist in a letter of 1602 to Laura Gonzaga, Duchess of Mantua.
In this silver sculpture, St Paul holds a book in his hand with a text from the Bible meaning: ‘Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God’. St Paul’s traditional attribute is a sword, which is here replaced by the text.