St. Jude Thaddeus, from Christ, the Apostles and St. Paul with the Creed

The apostle is depicted in a half-length portrait against a rugged, rocky background, looking upward with a hand pressed to his chest in a gesture of faith. He holds a small book, and on the stone ledge in front of him lies a large club, the instrument of his martyrdom. The print uses dense, swelling lines characteristic of the artist's sophisticated engraving technique.

This work belongs to a series that maps the twelve articles of the Apostles' Creed onto the individual apostles, a popular didactic theme in late 16th-century Northern European art. As a leading figure of the Haarlem Mannerists, Goltzius's work represents the peak of technical virtuosity in printmaking during the transition between the Renaissance and the Baroque.