Stefano Trapanese (1963) - SAN TOMMASO apostolo (St. Thomas apostle)

Stefano Trapanese is a LEADER ARTIST in the province of Salerno (Italy) and consistently ranks in the TOP10 of NATIONAL MASTER PORTRAIT ARTISTS in Italy (source PitturiAmo.com).
A student of Italian art history and, in particular, of seventeenth-century Neapolitan painting, Maestro Stefano Trapanese draws inspiration from the great Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) and from the painters of the Italian Baroque. His paintings are all original oil on canvas works. He selects the models, dresses them, and poses them for a portrait.
A twofold gesture intervenes to characterize the relational dynamic that the Apostle establishes with Christ, “visible” in the detail of the hand that tightens around Thomas’s wrist, in an exhortation to touch the mystery of the Risen One. It is Christ Himself inviting contact; it is He who, grabbing the Apostle’s wrist, “forces” him to put his finger in the wound, to probe the authenticity of his promise of salvation. And Thomas trusts in the possibility of a sensory response, whose effect is foreshadowed in the attitude of the left hand, captured in a gesture that is at once wonder and acceptance.
The detail of the wooden triangle, in the saint’s hand, recalls the office assigned to the Apostle in the apocryphal Acta Thomae (3rd century), which present him as a “builder,” alluding to the spiritual scope of his work, carried out for the edification of “a palace in heaven.”
The painting is equipped with a precious hand-carved gilded wooden frame and enlarges the dimensions of the work to 60 cm x 53 cm (19.6 in x 16.9 in) and a brass plaque.