Only when photography became the preferred medium for reproduction in the course of the 19th century did Marcantonio Raimondi’s prints surrender to the competition after he had for three hundred years maintained his reputation as the most important of Renaissance engravers. Here, he has reproduced Raphael’s (1483-1520) The Apostle Andrew against a neutral, hatched background, isolated from any external association. This was something new at the beginning of the 16th century. The figure of St Andrew was thus transformed into a “type”. And when taken together, Raimondi’s many “types” could act as a vocabulary – a visual alphabet – for other artists. Here, they could find ideas which they could further develop in their own compositions.
We do not know whether The Apostle Andrew and Raimondi’s other engravings of the Apostles were present in Thorvaldsen’s collections as early as 1820. Thorvaldsen was at that time starting his work on Christ and the Apostles for Copenhagen Cathedral (inv. nos. A86 to A109). In all cases, St Andrew is always recognisable by the X-shaped cross – known as the Cross of St Andrew or the saltire – on which St Andrew was in fact crucified. However, it is told that he was tied to the cross with a rope, not nailed to it as is said to have been the case with Christ.
