St. Matthew, from Christ, the Apostles and St. Paul with the Creed

Saint Matthew is shown in a moment of deep contemplation, his finger tracing a passage in a book while a halberd, the instrument of his martyrdom, leans against his rocky surroundings. The scene is set against a rugged, mountainous landscape with a distant castle perched on a hillside. This print is characterized by the intricate, rhythmic line work typical of late 16th-century Dutch engraving.

This work belongs to a series illustrating the Apostles' Creed, produced by Hendrick Goltzius, a leading figure of the Haarlem Mannerists. This group of artists and intellectuals combined religious subjects with the sophisticated aesthetic and philosophical interests of the late Northern Renaissance, often influencing the visual language of later esoteric publications.