ABSTRACT
Caravaggio’s seventeenth-century painting The Incredulity of Saint Thomas is one of the most iconic depictions of doubt in European art. The picture portrays Thomas leaning towards a partially robed Jesus (Figure A.1). Thomas’s face shows what might be taken as a slightly quizzical, even surprised, look, his right hand is outstretched and his index finger is poking into an open wound on Jesus’ right flank. Caravaggio’s famous picture refers to the even more famous biblical story. In this story, Thomas is supposed to have questioned the resurrection of Jesus, saying ‘unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it’. When Jesus later appeared before Thomas, he is reported to have told the apostle to touch the wounds and end his doubts.
