The most frequent image of Saint Stephen shows his stoning after his condemnation for blasphemy by the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. The account given in the Acts of the Apostles reads: And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. (Acts, 7, 59-60). The death of the young deacon marked the start of the persecution of the Christians in Jerusalem and Palestine led by Saul, the future Saint Paul.

Morales has not painted the scene of the lapidation, with a group of men furiously hurling stones at Saint Stephen. Instead, he has produced a small-format work for private devotion, and faithful to his style and the type of composition he handled best, he concentrates on a bust-length image of the figure. A stone resting precariously on the saint’s head and a torn alb or shirt refer to the moment of his martyrdom, but his image has been transformed into an exemplary icon that situates the viewer close to the suffering figure of the young deacon, the first martyr of the Christian Church, with tears rolling down his cheeks and a trickle of blood on his neck. The expressive hands repeat a codified gesture of prayer and submission which was used by the painter on other occasions, as in the Saint Francis in the Colección Masaveu and the Saint Dominic at Prayer registered in Paris in 1983.

The landscape background is certainly infrequent for figures of this type, which are normally surrounded by intense black. The saint appears in a setting defined by leafy trees and, in the background, some very characteristic rocky outcrops, markedly reminiscent of Flemish models. Bäcksbacka suggested they might be interpreted as a sort of Heaven’s Gate, with an opening in the steep rocks illuminated through the gap in the storm clouds. This also finds an echo in the Acts of the Apostles, where Saint Stephen scandalises the Sanhedrin, after the accusation of blasphemy, with the words: Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God (Acts, 7, 56). In the workshop version of the Oviedo panel held by the Museo del Prado, the reference is made explicit by a flight of steps leading to the heavenly gate, while included in the torrent of light is Christ the Saviour in the act of benediction (Text drawn from Ruiz, L.: The Divine Morales, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2015, pp. 180-182).