Another picture worth a thousand words. This painting acquired from a private dealer in Italy in 1811 and now in the National Gallery of Art Collection in Washington, D.C., is by an unknown artist who was apparently influenced by Cimabue (1240-1302), the great Italian painter of Florence. Cimabue is known for his move away from flat and stylized Byzantine art toward a more naturalistic attempt to portray feeling and emotion. This painting with Jesus in the center, flanked by Peter and James, seems to say it all. Notice how James is almost a “twin” of Jesus, while Peter is clearly “odd man out” in terms of the way he is portrayed. Later attempts to make this “James” the fisherman are parallel to textual moves within the New Testament documents to marginalize “James the less,” whom I take to be none other than the brother of Jesus.

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