The composition of this fifth tapestry focuses on the stoning of Stephen, the martyrdom of the first deacon and martyr of the Christian faith who was falsely accused of blaspheming against Moses and against God. The subject links up with The Death of Ananias, the previous tapestry showing the distribution and administration of goods that was entrusted to the deacons. The composition also introduces Saul, the future Saint Paul, marking the start of the Pauline cycle.

Outside Jerusalem the burly executioners have laid their coats at the feet of a young man called Saul so as to be able to throw stones with greater ease. Kneeling with outspread arms and dressed in a deacon’s dalmatic, Stephen, a more luminous figure than the rest, gazes up at the heavens at the celestial vision that appears in a parting of the clouds: ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ (Acts 7: 54−60). In the background is a view of the city of Jerusalem and the forest where the stoning takes place.

Borders: Female allegories of the liberal arts of the Trivium – Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialectic – and nourishing Wisdom are depicted beneath each other in the mirror-symmetrical side borders. Positioned in a row in the lower border are the female allegories of the theological and cardinal virtues: Faith with a flaming heart; Fortitude with the head of Holofernes; Temperance with a clock; and Diligence with winged sandals, her foot resting on a book.

Texts: Concha Herrero Carretero

La lapidación de san Esteban