When St. Philip is represented alone, or as one of the series of apostles, he is generally a man in the prime of life, with little beard, and with a benign countenance, being described as of a remarkably cheerful and affectionate nature. He bears, as his attribute, a cross, which varies in form; sometimes it is a small cross, which he carries in his hand; sometimes a high cross in the form of a T, or a tall staff with a small Latin cross at the top of it (79). The cross of St. Philip may have a treble signification: it may allude to his martyrdom; or to his conquest over the idols through the power of the cross; or, when placed on the top of the pilgrim’s staff, it may allude to his mission among the barbarians as preacher of the cross of salvation. Single figures of St. Philip as patron are not common: there is a fine statue of him on the façade of San Michele at Florence; and a noble figure by Beccafumi, reading;[214] another, seated and reading, by Ulrich Mair.[215]
Subjects from the life of St. Philip, whether as single pictures or in a series, are also rarely met with. As he was the first called by our Saviour to leave all and follow him, and his vocation therefore a festival in the Church, it must, I think, have been treated apart; but I have not met with it. I know but of three historical subjects taken from his life:—
1. Bonifazio. St. Philip stands before the Saviour: the attitude of the latter is extremely dignified, that of Philip supplicatory; the other apostles are seen in the background: the colouring and expression of the whole like Titian. The subject of this splendid picture is expressed by the inscription underneath (John, xiv. 14): ‘Domine, ostende nobis Patrem, et sufficit nobis.’ ‘Philippe, qui videt me, videt et Patrem meum: ego et Pater unum sumus.‘[216]
2. St. Philip exorcises the serpent. The scene is the interior of a temple, an altar with the statue of the god Mars: a serpent, creeping from beneath the altar, slays the attendants with his poisonous and fiery breath. The ancient fresco in his chapel at Padua, described by Lord Lindsay, is extremely animated, but far inferior to the same subject in the Santa Croce at Florence by Fra Filippo Lippi, where the dignified attitude of the apostle, and the group of the king’s son dying in the arms of the attendants, are admirably effective and dramatic. St. Philip, it must be observed, was the patron saint of the painter.
3. The Crucifixion of St. Philip. According to the old Greek traditions, he was crucified with his head downwards, and he is so represented on the gates of San Paolo; also in an old picture over the tomb of Cardinal Philippe d’Alençon, where his patron, St. Philip, is attached to the cross with cords, and head downwards, like St. Peter;[217] but in the old fresco by Giusto da Padova, in the Capella di San Filippo, he is crucified in the usual manner, arrayed in a long red garment which descends to his feet.
It is necessary to avoid confounding St. Philip the apostle with St. Philip the deacon. It was Philip the deacon who baptized the chamberlain of Queen Candace, though the action has sometimes been attributed to Philip the apostle. The incident of the baptism of the Ethiopian, taking place in the road, by running water, ‘on the way that goeth down from Jerusalem to Gaza,’ has been introduced into several beautiful landscapes with much picturesque effect. Claude has thus treated it; Salvator Rosa; Jan Both, in a most beautiful picture in the Queen’s Gallery; Rembrandt, Cuyp, and others.