Write to the editors
Most of what arrives at this address is one of two things: someone has spotted a saint filed under the wrong name, or someone is looking at a picture and cannot work out who is in it.
Saints Oil Paintings is edited by one person. A reply usually takes two to three working days, and a correction that needs checking against a museum record can take longer.
What is worth writing about
A misidentification
If a figure here is holding the wrong attribute for the name attached to them, say which entry and what the object actually is. This is the most useful message this desk receives.
An emblem we have not recorded
Attributes vary by region and by century. If a local convention is missing — a saint who carries something in Naples that they never carry in Bruges — that is worth an email.
A catalogue field that is wrong
Dates, supports, dimensions and current locations are copied from institutional records, and institutional records go stale. A work that has been reattributed or has changed hands is worth reporting.
What this address cannot do
This desk cannot value, authenticate or appraise a painting, and it is not able to identify a work from a photograph of something hanging in a private house. Those questions need a conservator or an auction specialist, not a catalogue.