Apostle Paul, c.1629 Jan Lievens (1607-1674)

We create our paintings with museum quality and covering the highest academic standards. Once we get your order, it will be entirely hand-painted with oil on canvas. All the materials we use are the highest level, being totally artist graded painting materials and linen canvas.

We will add 1.6" (4 cm) additional blank canvas all over the painting for stretching.

High quality and detailing in every inch are time consuming. The reproduction of Jan Lievens also needs time to dry in order to be completely ready for shipping, as this is crucial to not be damaged during transportation.
Based on the size, level of detail and complexity we need 8-9 weeks to complete the process.

In case the delivery date needs to be extended in time, or we are overloaded with requests, there will be an email sent to you sharing the new timelines of production and delivery.

TOPofART wants to remind you to keep patient, in order to get you the highest quality, being our mission to fulfill your expectations.

We not stretch and frame our oil paintings due to several reasons:
Painting reproduction is a high quality expensive product, which we cannot risk to damage by sending it being stretched.
Also, there are postal restrictions, regarding the size of the shipment.
Additionally, due to the dimensions of the stretched canvas, the shipment price may exceed the price of the product itself.

You can stretch and frame your painting in your local frame-shop.

Once the painting Apostle Paul is ready and dry, it will be shipped to your delivery address. The canvas will be rolled-up in a secure postal tube.

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The paintings we create are only of museum quality. Our academy graduated artists will never allow a compromise in the quality and detail of the ordered painting. TOPofART do not work, and will never allow ourselves to work with low quality studios from the Far East. We are based in Europe, and quality is our highest priority.

Power and revelation burst forth from this haunting portrait of Paul, painted by Jan Lievens in 1629. Here is a man possessed by divine fire, his wild white beard ablaze with inner light, his eyes burning with the intensity of one who has seen beyond the veil of ordinary existence. It is a painting that speaks to us across centuries about the raw, transformative nature of religious conviction.

The genius of Lievens - Rembrandt's studio-mate and rival in Leiden - lies in how he's dramatized this moment of spiritual creation. The composition is a masterpiece of psychological tension: Paul pauses, quill in hand, over his letter to the Thessalonians. The Greek text visible on the manuscript isn't mere historical detail, but evidence of Lievens' determination to capture authenticity in this moment of divine inspiration. The scattered books, the deep shadows, the unseen source of light - everything serves to create a sense of supernatural presence.

What's fascinating is how Lievens achieves this through pure painterly means. The restricted palette - those deep browns and grays punctuated by that extraordinary illumination of Paul's face and beard - creates an almost claustrophobic intensity. This isn't the clean, classical world of Renaissance saints, but something more primitive and powerful. The smooth application of paint, characteristic of the Leiden school, paradoxically serves to heighten the dramatic impact. It's as if Lievens is saying: look how control can serve to express the uncontrollable.

Context matters here. This was painted during a period when Lievens and Rembrandt were engaged in fierce artistic dialogue, both tackling the same subjects, pushing each other to greater heights. You can see in this work how Lievens is both embracing and transcending the influences around him. The chiaroscuro may speak of Caravaggio, but the psychological penetration is entirely his own. Even the subtle detail of the sword lurking in the shadows - a reference to Paul's martyrdom - feels less like conventional symbolism and more like a premonition of violence to come.

The real triumph of this painting lies in its immediacy. Across the centuries, we feel we're witnessing something profound: not just a man writing a letter, but the very moment when human consciousness touches the divine. In our secular age, such religious intensity might seem foreign, yet Lievens makes it viscerally real. This is what great art does - it makes the invisible visible, the distant immediate. In that sense, this painting isn't just about Paul's revelation - it becomes a revelation itself.