Six Apostles
Fresco
Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls
The names of the apostles are given in the framing strip below their portraits, although the strip has peeled away below the two in the center and left only the letter "S" for the third figure from the right. Left to right, they are Andrew (long cross), John (beardless youth), Bartholomew (flaying knife), Thomas (uncertain – attribute here is a spear), Jude (spear), and Matthias (maquette of a church).
I have no information on the date of this fresco, but some of the iconography suggests a date in the first centuries of the second millenium. St. Andrew holds a Latin cross, which artists often put in his hands until about the 15th century, when the X-shaped "cross saltire" prevailed. I have not seen any images of Andrew with a cross from the first millenium. (Indeed, any use of attributes is much more prominent in the second millenium.) Another clue for dating is the church maquette cradled in the arm of St. Matthias on the far right. The church appears to be Romanesque in design, tall and thin with a square campanile. Thus my guess for the date would be the 11th or 12th century.
If this is correct, the fresco would be an early example of the iconographic type in which each apostle has a scroll or banderole with one phrase from a sacred text, usually the Apostles' Creed. Unfortunately, the writing on these scrolls has faded so much that the text cannot be identified.
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Read more about the Apostles and the Creed.
Read more about Saint Andrew, Saint John the Evangelist, Saint Bartholomew, Saint Thomas, Saint Jude Thaddeus, and Saint Matthias.
Photographed at the basilica by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.