Luke the Evangelist

== As an artist ==
[[File:Evangelist Luka pishustchiy ikonu.jpg|thumb|upright|Luke the Evangelist painting the first [[icon]] of the Virgin Mary]]
Christian tradition, starting from the 8th century, states that Luke was the first [[icon]] painter. He is said to have painted pictures of the [[Mary (mother of Jesus)|Virgin Mary]] and Child, in particular the [[Hodegetria]] image in [[Constantinople]] (now lost). Starting from the 11th century, a number of painted images were venerated as his autograph works, including the [[Black Madonna of Częstochowa]], [[Theotokos of Vladimir|Our Lady of Vladimir]], and ''[[Maria Advocata (Madonna del Rosario)|Madonna del Rosario]]''. He was also said to have painted Saints [[Saint Peter|Peter]] and Paul, and to have illustrated a gospel book with a full cycle of miniatures.{{sfn|Grigg|1987|pp=3–9}}{{efn|name=Bacci}}

The late medieval [[Guild of Saint Luke|Guilds of Saint Luke]] gathered together and protected painters in many cities of Europe, especially Flanders. The [[Accademia di San Luca|Academy of Saint Luke]], in Rome, was imitated in many other European cities during the 16th century. The tradition that Luke painted icons of Mary and Jesus has been common, particularly in [[Eastern Orthodoxy]]. The tradition also has support from the [[Saint Thomas Christians]] of India who claim to still have one of the [[Theotokos]] icons that Saint Luke painted and which [[Thomas the Apostle|Saint Thomas]] brought to India.{{efn|name=Hosten}}{{Failed verification|date=September 2023}}

The art critic [[w:ru:Успенский, Александр Иванович (искусствовед)|A. I. Uspensky]] writes that the icons attributed to the brush of the Evangelist Luke have a completely Byzantine character that was fully established only in the 5th-6th centuries.<ref>[https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Aleksandr_Uspenskij/o-hudozhestvennoj-dejatelnosti-evangelista-luki/ Александр Иванович Успенский. О художественной деятельности евангелиста Луки : I, II. Ев. Лука как иконописец. Ев. Лука как резчик : Реф., чит. 8 нояб. 1900 г. в заседании Церк.-археол. отд. при Общ. люб. духов. просвещения тов. пред. Отд. А.И. Успенским. - Москва : типо-лит. И. Ефимова, 1901. - 12 с.; 27.]</ref>