The main altarpiece of the Parish of San Andrés constitutes one of the best classicist baroque ensembles in the city. It is a work that comes to replace a previous one and that must have been carried out between 1610 and 1621, since on these dates the payments made to Nazario de la Vega for its assembly are recorded. The altarpiece follows the lines of the main altarpiece of the El Escorial Monastery, adapting itself to the curvature of the shell of the apse, through a bend that gives rise to its three streets. These are in turn delimited by Doric columns in its lower body and composed in the upper and attic, thus following the canons of Vitruvius in his interpretation of Vignola. This is a very interesting detail, since it makes it clear that it is a Baroque work in which the classicist criterion prevails, the Solomonic column being absent from it.
 

The bench of the altarpiece is decorated with precious reliefs, the work of Gaspar de Aldaba, representing the Risen Christ, flanked by Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Saint Andrew and Saint Lucia. They are accompanied by six other apostles (San Felipe, Santo Tomás, Santiago el Menor, Santiago and San Judas Tadeo), three saints (Santa Águeda, Santa Bárbara and a third unidentified due to lack of attributes) and the four fathers of the Church, seated by couples sharing a desk. This iconographic set of the predella is extremely interesting, since it is a whole ecclesial catechesis. Thus, next to the Tabernacle, escorting the Risen Christ are Saint Peter and Saint Paul as columns of the Church and representatives of their charisms. The fact that other apostles appear alongside them does not require much explanation. But, the fact that they are accompanied by the holy martyrs refers to the testimony of the blood that they have given by not loving their life so much as to want to preserve it, just like the apostles (whose attributes tell us about their martyrdom). Basically, all of them represent the followers of Jesus who have followed him to death, and who therefore have a part in his resurrection, represented at the door of the tabernacle. The Fathers of the Latin Church complete this ecclesial representation, emphasizing the importance of reflection and study when receiving and living the Good News of the Gospel and making it flesh (and even blood) in the life of the Church.

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Artistically speaking, the most outstanding part of the whole complex is the one found in its lateral streets, in its central body and in its attic. In the former, there are four magnificent canvases by the Segovian painter Alonso de Herrera, corresponding to significant episodes in the life of Saint Andrew: the vocation, the Ascension of Jesus to Heaven, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the martyrdom of the apostle. These paintings are signed in the year 1617 and are considered the masterpieces of the artist. In them, he makes his training and work at the El Escorial Monastery clear, by making Mannerist-style compositions in which he combines rich Venetian chromatism, great Renaissance architecture and landscapes, and begins to play with baroque chiaroscuro. In the central body and the attic are located respectively the sculptural group of the prayer of Saint Andrew before the cross and the Savior, masterpieces by the sculptor Gregorio Fernández.
 

The choice of these iconographies and their placement on the altarpiece is not at all casual and has a great catechetical message. The story begins on the canvas of the second body of the left side street (the one corresponding to the gospel nave). It represents the vocation of Saint Andrew, following the story of Saint John the Evangelist. Actually, it is the moment when the apostle, after having spent the afternoon with Jesus, brings his brother Peter to him. An episode with a great burden, since, on the one hand, it informs that Andrew is Peter's brother and on the other, it shows that it was he who led to Jesus who would later be the first pope of the Church. The second of the episodes is found immediately below, and it is that of the Ascension of the Lord into the heavens. It is a beautiful work, with clearly Italian lines in which Christ ascends before the vision of the Virgin Mary and the apostles. Among these, the two pairs of brothers whom Christ called by the Lake of Galilee are identifiable by means of their attributes: Saint Peter (with the keys), Saint Andrew (with a book with a cross at his feet) , Santiago (with the pilgrim's staff) and San Juan (with his Gospel). The narration continues in the lower body of the opposite street with the representation of Pentecost. It is a canvas on which the author is already testing the chiaroscuro technique. In it, the Holy Spirit descends on the Virgin and the apostles, among whom the same as in the previous painting are identified in the same way.
 

From here the story jumps to the central body in which an iconography is represented that is no longer taken from the evangelical stories, but from the apocryphal gospels (specifically the Acta Andreae), compiled in the medieval text of the Golden Legend of Santiago of the Maelstrom. In it we have the magnificent high-relief in which Gregorio Fernández represented Saint Andrew praying in front of the cross moments before being tied to it. It is a work that is impressive not only artistically, but also iconographically and catechetically. Since it shows us that Saint Andrew's journey of faith and the reception of the gift of the Holy Spirit enabled him to be a witness of Jesus Christ to the point of shedding his blood. In fact, the catechetical itinerary concludes in the second body of the epistle street, with the almost gloomy canvas of the martyrdom of Saint Andrew. For all these reasons, the altarpiece and its iconography constitute not only a narrative catechesis, but also a discreet and explicit invitation for the faithful to follow a similar itinerary.
 

When contemplating this altarpiece, the fact that the famous cross of Saint Andrew is absent from it (which, on the other hand, is the emblem of the Parish) and that the Latin cross is present in its place. The explanation for this fact has much to do with the arrival in Valladolid in 1610 of a painting by Caravaggio (today in the Cleveland Museum of Art) depicting Saint Andrew crucified on a Latin cross. Both Gregorio Fernández and Alonso de Herrera were able to see this painting in the Palacio de Pimentel in Valladolid, and both probably knew then why Caravaggio chose this type of iconography of the crucifixion. Since, according to the oldest accounts, the crucifixion of Saint Andrew took place on a Latin cross to which the apostle greeted and prayed before (as represented by the sculptural group of Gregorio Fernández). However, during the early Middle Ages the iconography of the cross with which we today associate both the apostle and his martyrdom began to appear. Therefore, this iconography of Saint Andrew on a Latin cross must be understood within the Counter-Reformation attempts to better fit hagiographic stories. An attempt that, as you can imagine, was not very successful, and of which the altarpiece of San Andrés de Segovia is one of the few existing testimonies in Spanish art.

Next, in the attic of the altarpiece we find a group of round images that come out of the narrative characterization, being more properly allegorical. These are the magnificent carving of the Savior, the work of Gregorio Fernández, and those of Faith and Hope, San Juan and Santiago, produced by Felipe de Aragón's gouges. The attic of the altarpiece has the character of a celestial allegory, with a representation of the triumph of Christ, of the virtues and of the triumphant Church. For this reason, we find in the center the image of the Savior blessing, with the orb in his hands and flanked by the virtues of Faith (who carries a cross in his hands) and Hope (who does the same with an anchor). . Above these three images is the painting of the Holy Spirit, which, together with them, highlights the character of a triumphant allegory of the whole. At the ends we find the images of Santiago and San Juan. Their presence has sometimes been explained by alluding to the fact that two gates in the wall are dedicated to them, in addition to the one dedicated to Saint Andrew. However, this explanation being possible, the truth is that I believe that it can be complemented from a believing perspective with the verification that this pair of brothers shared an office in the lake of Galilee with Saint Andrew and with Saint Peter until the moment in which Jesus He called them to be fishers of men, which is why they are members of the Church Triumphant. In this way, their persons are a sign of hope by uniting the earthly life of men with the eternal life associated with the triumph of Christ and lived through the virtues.

Finally, it remains to be said that, on the tabernacle, in the place where a golden exhibitor with revolving doors was originally located, the image of Our Lady of Mercy has been venerated since 1673. It is a sculpture by José Ratés y Dalmau who, as will be seen later, was the head of the Third Order of the Servites, which had its canonical headquarters in this Parish.