The New Testament describes how Andrew and his brother Simon Peter, who were fishermen on the Sea of Galilee, met Jesus and became his first followers.

After his death, according to tradition, Andrew preached around the Black Sea, before his execution in Patras on the Peloponnese, tied to a Latin cross.

The veneration of Andrew is likely to have reached Spain during the reign of Charles V. Zurbarán depicts him in the style of the Counter-Reformation, without other characters and with his attributes clearly visible.

On July 11, 1913, it was sold to the London art dealership Knoedler and Co., where it was bought by the Hungarian collector Baron Ferenc Hatvany, who took it to Budapest.

[1] The heirs of Leopold Herzog brought a lawsuit against the Hungarian state in 2010 to regain possession of his collection, including the Saint Andrew; the claim remained unresolved as of October 2020.